GIFT  OF 


THEY  WENT 


THEY  WENT 


BY 

NORMAN  DOUGLAS 

Author  of  "Old  Calabria," 
"South  Wind,"  etc. 


NEW  YORK 

DODD,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY 
1921 


COPYRIGHT,  1921, 
BY  DODD,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY,  INO, 


•  V  ••••*•••     •   «  i  .        •••         * 

''\TL/^:'''  •'•••••'•••• 


VAIU-BALLOU    COMPANY 
BINCHAMTON  AND  NEW  YORK 


TO  HIS  FRIEND 
WILLIAM  ARKWRIGHT 


M126521 


THEY  WENT 


THEY  WENT 

PAET  I 
CHAPTER  I 

YOU  could  hear  the  waves  moaning,  out 
yonder. 
There  was  no  escaping  from  the  sea. 
It  hung  like  a  menace,  they  sometimes  said,  over 
the  low-lying  city.     Day  and  night  that  pungent 
salty  odour  invaded  the  town;  for  the  ocean 
entered  up  a  short  river-channel  into  its  very 

heart,  the  docks;  and  billows  dashed  lustily 
against  the  huge  embankment  or  sea-wall  which, 
at  this  hour  of  the  afternoon,  would  have  been 
crowded  with  folk  but  for  those  gusts  of  rain 
that  kept  them  indoors.  A  warm  summer  rain, 
interspersed  with  flashes  of  merry  sunshine. 
Green  things  were  sprouting  on  the  plain;  the 
mountains,  further  back,  had  veiled  themselves 
in  mists.  Here,  in  the  streets,  moisture  fell  in 
glad  cataracts  upon  the  pavements  and  spurted 
up  again,  buffeted  by  the  wind,  against  the  gran- 
ite shop-fagades  or  those  polished  marble  fronts 
of  the  nobler  palaces  that  shone  like  mirrors  with 

the  wetness. 

i 


WENT 

And  a  rainbow  hung  in  the  sky,  an  ordinary 
one.  Nobody  paid  much  attention.  It  was  "  a 
rainbowish  sort  of  place/'  as  the  old  king  was 
often  heard  to  remark. 

•Such  were  the  splashings  and  drippings,  and 
such  the  din  he  made  himself  with  his  imple- 
ments, that  old  Lelian,  working  with  his  back 
to  the  half-opened  door,  kept  on  thinking  him- 
self quite  alone.  He  was  a  cheery,  muscular 
mortal  who  knew  his  craft  and  had  made  fine 
weapons  in  his  day ;  it  was  not  for  nothing  that 
he  bore  the  title  of  Court-armourer.  Who 
wanted  armour  nowadays?  They  lay  about  in 
corners,  the  old  shields  and  swords  and  helmets 
cunningly  wrought  with  his  own  hand;  there 
they  lay,  a  pitiful  collection,  rusting  and  forgot- 
ten. Often  he  looked  at  them,  and  shook  his 
head  dubiously. 

He  wore  sandals  and  breeches  of  leather;  his 
gaiters  were  fastened  with  coloured  straps. 
There  was  a  ring  of  copper  in  one  of  his  ears, 
and  his  bare  arms,  issuing  out  of  that  sleeveless 
tunic,  were  encircled  with  bracelets  of  the  same 
metal  —  common  copper !  His  mouth  was  al- 
most hidden  under  a  drooping  grey  moustache; 
grey,  too,  was  the  long  hair  that  tumbled  from 
either  side  of  his  head,  whose  summit  was 
cropped  close,  after  the  fashion  of  bygone  days. 
All  of  which  proved  him  to  belong  to  that  older 


THEY  WENT  3 

generation,  a  generation  of  warriors.  There 
were  not  many  of  them  left  now.  They  used  to 
fight,  in  his  time.  They  went  to  battle  crowned 
with  garlands,  as  to  a  feast ;  often  enlarged  their 
wounds  purposely ;  always  preferred  death  to  dis- 
honour. Those  days  were  over.  Nobody  talked 
about  fighting  any  more.  It  was  an  era  of 
peace,  of  splendour  and  luxury,  and  wrong- 
doing. Those  fountains  and  coloured  marbles; 
the  gold,  the  jewels,  the  steaming  vapour-baths 
and  colonnades  and  pleasure-houses  and  dancing- 
booths  and  —  and  worse!  All  those  tawny- 
skinned  merchants  from  foreign  countries,  clad 
in  glittering  robes  —  where  would  it  end?  No- 
body, of  course,  could  help  liking  the  young  prin- 
cess who  fostered  these  growths.  Nobody  could 
refuse  her  anything.  Yet  Lelian,  like  everybody 
else,  had  heard  queer  tales  about  her. 

He  shook  his  head  more  dubiously  than  ever, 
and  pondered  awhile. 

Queer  tales !  If  only  her  parents  had  seen  fit 
to  bring  her  up  more  strictly  —  to  send  her,  for 
instance,  to  that  far-famed  college  on  the  Sacred 
Rock 

At  this  point  of  his  meditations,  he  grew  sud- 
denly aware  of  a  strange  feeling.  He  was  no 
longer  alone.  Eyes  were  gazing  upon  him  from 
the  doorway  at  his  back.  And  before  he  had 
time  to  turn  round,  he  heard  the  words ; 


4  THEY  WENT 

"  Make  me  a  mask,  my  good  Lelian.  A  mask 
of  copper.  And  greeting/' 

It  was  the  young  lady  herself.  Wet  with  the 
shower,  she  laughingly  wrung  out  the  drops  from 
the  thick-clustering  hair  which  fell  in  a  ruddy 
torrent  over  her  shoulders.  Her  mantle  of  green 
was  clasped  by  a  belt  at  the  waist;  breast  and 
arms  were  ablaze  with  precious  stones,  the  envy 
of  other  women.  No  man  ever  saw  them.  She 
might  wear  what  clothing  or  jewels  she  liked: 
they  only  saw  her  face.  Or  if  by  chance  their 
eye  lingered  on  such  outward  things,  it  was  only 
to  divine  the  shapely  curves  of  her  limbs  under- 
neath. She  had  been  standing  at  the  door  unper- 
ceived  for  a  short  time,  wondering  what  to  say 
and  how  to  say  it.  As  usual,  she  had  gone 
straight  to  the  point. 

There  was  nothing  uncommon  in  the  princess, 
thus  unattended,  entering  the  shop  of  an  artizan 
or  trader.  It  was  a  jovial,  democratic  place. 
The  royal  family  —  the  two  parents  and  their 
only  child  —  were  vastly  popular,  and  the  young 
lady  herself,  when  she  pleased,  was  more  demo- 
cratic than  any  one  else  and  moreover,  though 
only  nineteen  years  of  age  —  nineteen  years,  or 
perhaps  a  little  more  —  perfectly  capable  of  tak- 
ing care  of  herself.  She  was  on  familiar  terms 
with  many  merchants;  in  the  case  of  a  goodly 
number  of  them,  it  was  at  her  own  request  that 


THEY  WENT  5 

they  had  left  their  distant  homes  in  South  or 
East  and  settled  down  here  to  do  business.  As 
to  old  Lelian,  she  often  consulted  him  about 
metals  and  enamels,  for  she  was  passionately 
fond  of  such  things  and  had  a  workshop  of  her 
own  in  her  tower.  Not  long  ago,  out  of  sheer 
caprice,  she  had  even  persuaded  him  to  become  a 
member  of  the  Goldsmiths'  Guild,  a  collection 
of  foreign  craftsmen  who  could  poise  an  emerald 
in  a  ring  as  though  it  hung  in  water  and  tease 
the  ductile  gold  into  filagree  work  finer  than  a 
spider's  web  —  men  with  whose  aspirations  he 
had  nothing  in  common,  and  whose  womanly 
delicacy  of  touch  he  neither  wished  nor  tried  to 
rival.  Yet  he  yielded;  who  could  refuse  the 
princess  anything?  Had  he  not  watched  her 
growth  with  a  kind  of  scared  joy,  and  fashioned 
brooches  and  bracelets  for  her,  in  sport,  when  she 
was  still  a  little  child?  She  always  loved  things 
of  price  and  beauty,  though  now,  with  growing 
years,  her  tastes  had  expanded;  no  longer  con- 
tent to  frolic  with  metals,  she  worked  her  will 
upon  men  and  houses  and  streets.  The  city  had 
become  her  plaything. 

Often  she  came  to  see  the  armourer.  She 
liked  him,  above  all,  because  he  could  hold  his 
tongue.  The  princess,  like  everybody  else,  had 
a  reputation  to  keep  up. 

"  A  mask,"  the  old  man  began,  hesitatingly. 


6  THEY  WENT 

What  kind  of  mask,  he  wondered.  For  what 
purpose?  He  moved  his  implements  about  with 
an  undecided  gesture  and  then,  suddenly  mindful 
of  his  duty,  drew  up  that  square  stool  of  oaken 
timber  upon  which  the  young  lady  had  often 
rested.  She  remained  standing.  She  seemed  to 
be  in  a  hurry. 

"  Like  this,"  she  explained  once  more,  going 
into  its  construction  and  mechanism.  "And 
with  a  screw  at  the  back,  like  this  —  you  fol- 
low?" 

The  armourer  nodded  thoughtfully. 

"  It  can  be  made,  my  lady.  And  shall  be 
made.  But " 

"  Oh,  for  fun." 

Her  notions  of  fun  were  not  those  of  every- 
body ;  they  were  almost  peculiar  to  herself.  This 
mask,  for  example  —  it  was  quite  an  original 
idea  of  hers.  She  was  tired  of  poisons. 

"  Nothing  easier,  my  lady,"  he  began  again. 
"  But,  I  was  going  to  say,  a  screw  of  that  kind, 
if  incautiously  pressed,  might  hurt  or  even  suf- 
focate the  wearer." 

It  is  possible,  though  not  likely,  that  she  would 
have  answered,  "  that  is  precisely  what  I  want 
it  for " :  she  stopped  short  in  time.  The  door 
opened  wide  and,  together  with  a  gust  of  warm 
wind,  a  young  boy  entered  the  room.  This  was 
Harre",  aged  about  twelve,  a  sturdy  imp  who  had 


THEY  WENT  7 

been  bred  among  the  remote  and  fierce  tribe  of 
the  Alloquisti.  Nearly  everybody  disliked 
Harre"  save  the  princess,  who  had  discovered  him 
in  a  curious  manner  and  now  found  him  useful 
for  household  purposes.  He  was  clothed  at  that 
moment  in  a  deerskin,  and  the  rainwater  ran 
down  his  bare  legs.  What  added  considerably  to 
his  picturesque  appearance  was  the  fact  that  he 
was  painted  blue;  blue  from  head  to  foot;  blue 
of  a  bright  celestial  tint,  extracted  from  a  cer- 
tain variety  of  the  colour-producing  plant  which 
was  found  only  in  that  distant  territory.  Like 
the  rest  of  his  savage  race,  he  wore  a  deerskin  on 
those  rare  occasions  when  he  wore  anything  at 
all;  a  garment  which  in  his  ca'se  was  made  to 
hold  together  across  the  shoulders  by  means  of  a 
bow-shaped  fibula  of  electron  designed  by  the 
princess  herself;  the  thing  looked  well,  and  was 
one  of  her  earliest  attempts  in  that  composition. 

He  promptly  unclasped  it  and,  fumbling  under- 
neath, produced  a  package  of  some  brown  mate- 
rial held  together  by  a  hempen  cord.  It  gave 
forth,  on  being  opened,  a  shawl  of  finest  texture, 
an  exquisite  product  that  came  from  far,  far 
away  —  from  the  regions  known  as  the  Koof  of 
the  World.  Some  man  of  the  East,  some  slender 
and  dusky  princeling,  had  once  laid  it,  together 
with  other  gifts,  at  the  queen's  feet. 

"  Your  mother   sends   this,"   he  said.     "  She 


8  THEY  WENT 

fears  you  may  get  wet.  She  implores  and  com- 
mands you  to  put  it  on.  She  also  begs  you " 

"  How  did  she  know  I  was  here?  " 

"I  told  her.  I  guessed  it.  I  saw  you  go  in 
this  direction." 

To  look  at  the  young  lady's  face,  nobody  could 
have  divined  at  that  moment  how  angry  she  was. 
She  went  on,  quite  kindly: 

"  What  more,  my  child?  " 

"  She  begs  you  to  appear  at  the  palace  tonight. 
There  will  be  something  of  a  feast.  A  wealthy 
Greek  merchant  is  arriving:  I  forget  his  name. 
Yes,  Theophilus!  And  also  a  new  Christian 
preacher." 

"  What,  another  one?  " 

"  His  ship  is  already  sighted  from  the  North- 
West.  And  the  quite-too-chaste-and-venerable 
Mother  Manthis  has  sailed  across  and  will  doubt- 
less be  there.  I  think  your  mother  fears  there 
may  be  some  dispute  between  her  and  the  Chris- 
tian. She  always  fears  such  little  things." 

"  Bother  that  druidess,"  said  the  young  lady, 
who  had  other  plans  for  the  evening. 

Harr6  always  named  the  person  in  question  by 
her  full  title  and  with  the  deepest  respect,  ever 
since  one  memorable  occasion  when  the  old  lady 
had  proved  to  him  that  she,  at  all  events,  was 
not  to  be  trifled  with.  Manthis,  the  arch- 
druidess,  tolerated  no  nonsense,  least  of  all  from 


THEY  WENT  9 

what  she  called  "  mere  males."  She  kept  a  kind 
of  college  or  seminary  for  young  girls  on  the 
Sacred  Rock,  the  largest  of  a  group  of  islands 
which  rose  out  of  the  sea  a  couple  of  miles  off. 
As  a  member  of  the  highest  aristocracy  of  the 
land,  and  also  in  virtue  of  her  sacerdotal  and 
political  character,  she  put  in  an  appearance  at 
court  as  often  as  she  could ;  as  often,  that  is,  as 
she  could  spare  time  from  her  pupils.  The  girls 
were  uppermost  in  her  mind;  all  else  was  sub- 
ordinate to  their  welfare.  She  worked  for  them, 
and  them  alone,  out  on  that  island.  Not  that 
there  was  lack  of  evil-speaking  in  the  town,  even 
in  regard  to  so  austere  and  transparently  upright 
a  personality  as  Manthis.  Men  whispered  that 
she  used  to  live  on  the  borders  of  her  little  lake 
in  the  character  of  a  Groac'h  or  wicked  fairy, 
entrapping  young  men  to  her  underground  pal- 
ace by  means  of  a  boat  shaped  like  a  sleeping 
swan,  and  there  transmuting  them  into  fishes  or 
frogs  for  mysterious  purposes  of  her  own. 
Others,  equally  ignorant  or  malicious,  claimed 
that  she  was  the  last  survivor  of  a  company  of 
nine  abandoned  women  who,  vowed  (as  they 
said)  to  perpetual  virginity,  dwelt  on  that  sea- 
girt rock  under  the  pretence  of  worshipping  the 
chaste  moon;  terrified  sailormen  had  seen  them, 
each  clad  in  a  single  garment,  dancing  nocturnal 
rounds  on  the  lonely  beach  or  sailing  landward 


10  THEY  WENT 

under  the  stars  to  meet  their  lovers.  Whoever 
set  eyes  on  Manthis  might  well  marvel  how  such 
tales  could  ever  have  arisen. 

The  princess  was  not  thinking  of  those  legends 
just  then.  She  was  thinking  of  herself.  She 
seldom  thought  of  anything  else.  "  That  ex- 
plains/' she  mused,  "  why  they  want  me  at  the 
palace  tonight." 

The  queen  was  always  anxious  to  avoid  trouble 
and  discussions;  she  hated  what  she  called 
"  scenes/'  especially  at  court.  It  was  so  easy, 
she  declared,  to  demean  oneself  in  friendly  wise 
with  everybody !  Perhaps  she  foresaw  that  there 
might  be  words  between  the  druidess  and  this 
new  Christian  preacher,  as  in  the  case  of  his 
predecessor.  Manthis  could  doubtless  be  trusted 
to  do  the  right  thing  in  every  emergency;  she 
could  keep  her  temper  like  any  other  high-born 
lady.  And  all  would  have  gone  smoothly  on 
the  first  occasion  but  for  that  particular  Chris- 
tian missionary  —  the  only  one,  up  till  then,  that 
had  ever  set  foot  in  the  town  —  who  turned  out 
to  be  such  a  violent  venerable  that  things  had 
ended,  between  himself  on  the  one  side,  and  the 
druidess  and  court  and  citizens  on  the  other,  in 
a  complete  misunderstanding.  A  complete  mis- 
understanding!  Which  was  a  pity,  for  the 
townsfolk,  as  well  as  the  royal  family,  were  noth- 
ing if  not  well-disposed  towards  strangers. 


THEY  WENT  11 

"  Scenes  "  of  this  kind,  the  queen  decided,  must 
never  occur  again ;  apart  from  all  other  reasons, 
they  were  bad  for  the  old  king's  health.  And 
hitherto  they  had  been  successfully  avoided. 
Such  was  the  tact  and  innate  kindliness  of  the 
royal  couple  that  no  scandal  ever  occurred  since 
the  days  of  that  first  Christian  — "  peace  at  any 
price  "  had  become  the  watchword  of  the  entire 
court. 

This,  then,  was  the  reason  why  the  queen  was 
anxious  for  her  daughter  to  appear  that  even- 
ing. And  also  to  enliven  the  assembly  in  gen- 
eral. For  life  at  the  palace  was  dull,  and  it  was 
observed  that  whenever  the  princess  showed  her- 
self and  came  away  from  her  beloved  tower  — 
which  was  fairly  often,  seeing  that,  like  a  good 
girl,  she  always  gratified  her  parents  when  she 
could  spare  time  from  her  own  occupations  — 
there  was  more  laughter  and  joy  than  usual  in 
that  rather  formal  gathering. 

"  Go  and  wait  outside  the  door,"  she  now  said 
to  Harre*.  "And  here!  Take  this  dreadful 
woollen  contrivance  with  you.  Fancy  asking  me 
to  wear  it !  What  next?  " 

She  presently  followed  him,  after  a  few  final 
words  with  the  armourer  about  her  new  toy. 
They  stepped  together  into  the  street  and  soon 
reached  an  open  space  with  arches  running 
round  it,  and  fountains  and  flower  beds  in  the 


12  THEY  WENT 

centre  —  it  lay  beside  the  harbour  where  count- 
less ships  were  moored,  one  beside  the  other,  in 
the  still  green  waters.  The  shower  had  ceased; 
a  gleam  of  evening  sunshine  was  breaking 
through  the  clouds. 

The  princess  enquired : 

"  Did  you  hear,  as  you  entered,  what  I  was 
saying  about  the  brooch?  " 

"  In  that  wind  and  rain?  How  could  I  hear 
anything?  " 

"  Now  listen,  Harre.  Why  did  you  tell  my 
mother  where  I  was,  since  I  have  forbidden  you 
to  do  so?  Why?  Look  at  me." 

She  glanced  so  strangely  into  his  eyes  that  he 
began  to  tremble  all  over.  It  was  not  the  first 
time  she  had  looked  at  him  like  this,  and  under 
that  scorching  fire  all  his  impudence  seemed  to 
wither  away. 

"  Why?  "  she  persisted. 

"  I  forgot.  I  also  thought  you  would  like 
something  to  protect  you  from  the  wet." 

She  was  wearing  a  necklace  that  hung  loosely 
over  her  bosom,  a  necklace  of  male  carbuncles; 
they  glowed  with  a  crimson  light  and  were  set 
in  massive  gold.  Now  she  raised  her  arms  and 
detached  its  clasp  beneath  the  thick  hair  that 
streamed  down  her  back.  Then,  taking  the  jewel 
in  her  hand,  she  began  to  count  the  stones  along 
one  side.  At  the  eleventh  she  paused,  and 


THEY  WENT  13 

rubbed  away  the  moisture  on  its  surface.  Lay- 
ing her  hand  on  the  boy's  shoulder,  she  said  in 
gentle  fashion : 

"You  know  something  about  pigs,  don't  you, 
Harr6?  " 

'  Don't  I?  "  he  replied,  his  heart  swelling  with 
Alloquistian  pride.  "  Our  pigs  are  the  finest  in 
the  world.  They  are  so  big  and  strong  and  fleet 
of  foot  that  no  stranger  can  approach  them,  and 
if " 

"  I  thought  so.  Now  look  through  that  stone, 
and  tell  me  what  you  see.  Hold  it  before  your 
eye.  Close  the  other  eye.  Look  into  the  sun." 

He  did  so. 

"  All  red,"  he  replied.     "  Like  blood." 

"  Look  again.    What  do  you  see?  " 

"  I  see  —  ah,  how  strange !  I  see  a  little  pig. 
It  is  tied  to  a  stake  by  one  leg,  and  a  man  is 
beating  it  with  a  crooked  stick.  It  cries  all  the 
time.  I  can  hear  it." 

"  Look  more  carefully.    What  else?  " 

Harr6  hesitated  long  before  replying.  At  last 
he  said : 

"  I  see  nothing  more.  It  is  always  tied  to  that 
stake,  and  always  being  beaten,  and  always  cry- 
ing. The  poor  little  pig!  It  cries  very  badly." 

"  That  is  what  I  shall  do  to  you,  Harre".  I 
shall  turn  you  into  a  little  pig  like  that  one,  and 
lock  you  up  in  a  stone  like  this  one " 


I 
14  THEY  WENT 

"  Oh ! " 

"  Yes.  But  I  shall  not  wear  you  round  my 
neck.  I  shall  take  you  in  a  boat  a  three  months' 
sail  beyond  the  Sacred  Rock,  and  drop  you  to 
the  bottom  of  the  sea.  There  you  will  lie  deep 
down,  all  alone  among  the  weeds,  always  tied  up 
and  always  crying " 

"  Oh ! » 

"  And  always  being  beaten  with  a  crooked 
stick,  if  —  if  ever  you  disobey  me  again,"  she 
added  in  a  more  kindly  tone  of  voice.  "  Now 
look  at  me." 

He  looked,  and  saw  that  her  wrath  had  fled. 
The  horror  of  the  vision  endured.  He  knew  that 
she  could  keep  her  word,  and  would.  She  was 
well  capable  of  such  a  deed,  if  only  for  fun. 
There  was  no  doubt  whatever  that  the  princess, 
for  all  her  youth,  had  drunk  of  the  water  of 
Entri  and  was  already  a  magician.  Nobody  but 
she,  thought  Harre",  could  have  talked  over  those 
dwarfs  and  made  them  do  her  bidding.  That 
alone  proved  her  power. 

Then,  remembering  the  dwarfs,  he  began  to 
smile  once  more.  What  a  trick  he  played  them ! 
And  how  well  everything  had  turned  out!  For 
it  was  better,  assuredly,  serving  this  beautiful 
lady  than  guarding  swine  with  the  Alloquisti, 
among  the  damp  woods  and  bracken  and  stand- 
ing stones,  and  being  beaten  by  a  stern  blue 


THEY  WENT  15 

father  and  a  stern  blue  mother  every  single  day 
of  his  life. 

Meanwhile  they  moved  forth  again  along  the 
quays  towards  the  great  sea-wall  or  embankment 
whereon  stood  the  tower  of  the  young  lady, 
Harr6  walking  respectfully  behind  his  mistress, 
with  the  bundle  underneath  his  deerskin.  The 
sun  shone ;  tall  buildings  still  trickled  with  mois- 
ture; it  sped  gleefully  down  the  gutters  and 
found  its  way  at  last  into  the  Great  Drain  —  that 
masterpiece  of  engineering  which  had  cost  its 
famous  Roman  builder,  Ormidius  Limpidus, 
much  anxious  thought.  It  ran  far  out  to  sea, 
close  beneath  the  lady's  tower,  and  some  said 
there  was  a  secret  stairway  from  her  apartments 
right  down  to  its  sullen  black  waters.  Nobody 
knew  the  truth  of  this,  and  the  Great  Drain  it- 
self told  no  tales. 

And  now  they  had  climbed  the  embankment 
against  whose  granite  foundations  the  tide  was 
ramping  and  raging. 

"  Your  lady  mother  will  be  sitting  out  yonder," 
said  Harre". 

"  Likely  enough.  And  doing  her  embroidery. 
And  singing  that  venerable  song.  Poor  old 
thing!  She  never  changes." 

The  sky  was  full  of  wetness  and  joy,  and 
streaked  with  gold  like  a  lion's  mane.  Of  such  a 
hue,  like  a  flaming  wisp  torn  down  from  the 


16  THEY  WENT 

glory  of  sunset,  was  the  lady's  hair;  one  would 
have  called  it  red,  but  for  the  fact  that  she  hap- 
pened to  be  a  princess.  It  was  a  prodigy,  this 
hair,  for  that  of  all  the  other  citizens  was  black 
or  brown  by  nature,  though  some  ladies  tried  to 
imitate  her  ruddy  tint  by  means  of  soap  made 
from  tallow  and  the  ashes  of  a  certain  tree.  And 
her  eyes  were  green ;  green  as  moss,  or  as  those 
tangled  ribbons  of  emerald  that  sway  mirthfully 
among  their  dun  companions  in  the  water  of 
rocky  sea-clefts.  There  was  something  of  the 
untamed  beauty  of  the  ocean  in  her  look  and 
carriage;  something  of  the  wildness  of  Aithryn 
whom  the  countryfolk  in  their  simplicity,  believ- 
ing everything  distant  or  unknown  to  be  mira- 
culous, held  to  be  a  legendary  sea-god. 

For  nobody  in  the  town  had  ever  beheld  the 
Aithryn  of  flesh  and  blood,  that  rather  stupid 
man  —  Aithryn  the  menace,  the  predestined  de- 
stroyer; nobody  save  the  queen,  and  that  was 
nineteen  years  ago  —  nineteen  years,  or  perhaps 
a  little  more. 

She,  poor  old  thing,  had  taken  him  for  a 
friend ;  for  somewhat  more  than  a  friend. 


CHAPTER  II 

IT  was  the  business  of  Ando,  the  court  pro- 
phet, to  "  keep  it  up,"  that  is  to  say,  to  pre- 
vent the  conversation  at  palace  entertain- 
ments from  flagging,  as  it  sometimes  did.  When 
sufficiently  sober,  as  he  sometimes  was,  he  might 
be  heard  to  descant  on  this  wise: 

"  We  have  seen  it  in  the  land  of  the  Chauci 
"  and  there  he  generally  paused,  to  gain  at- 
tention. 

"What  have  we  seen?"  one  of  the  guests 
would  ask,  more  out  of  politeness  than  for  any 
other  reason.  Ando's  stories  were  fairly  well 
known;  that  of  the  Chauci  in  particular.  He 
was  going  to  say  something  to  flatter  the  king, 
the  founder  of  the  city;  something  about  that 
stone  embankment  which  he  had  built. 

"  How,  from  the  dawn  of  time,  there  has  been 
sullen  rivalry  between  land  and  water.  They 
are  always  stealing  marches  on  one  another. 
The  sea  strives  by  force  or  guile  to  encroach 
upon  the  earth;  it  engulfs  whole  cities  beneath 
the  waves,  and  secretly,  in  days  of  summer  calm, 
gnaws  away  the  foundations  of  headlands  and 
islets.  They  crash  asunder,  toppling  down  in 

17 


18  THEY  WENT 

wintry  gales,  and  water  gleams  where  rock  once 
stood.  Elsewhere  the  land  thrusts  forth  prom- 
ontories and  spits,  stealthily  driving  back 
the  sea  from  its  old  haunts.  Then  came  man 
"  Here  he  would  pause  again. 

"  What  of  it?  "  the  civil  guest  would  ask. 

"  Man  took  sides  with  earth.  He  embittered 
the  strife.  Long  ago  he  went  in  simple-minded 
hordes,  armed  to  the  teeth,  to  fight  the  tides 
which  threatened  to  roll  over  his  fields;  soon  he 
constructed  ships  that  mocked  the  storms;  he 
built  dykes  and  stole  unnumbered  leagues  of 
old  ocean-meadows  like  those  of  the  Chauci 
which  happen  to  be  still  unreclaimed;  he  drove 
piles  into  the  waves,  planting  towns  and  pleas- 
ure-houses over  their  very  heads.  So  the  war- 
fare proceeds.  Like  two  bad  neighbours,  they 
continue  to  shift  one  another's  boundary-marks, 
and  the  issue  remains  ever  undecided.  What 
land  gains  here  and  today,  the  sea  will  snatch 
yonder  and  tomorrow.  But <" 

"What  of  it?" 

"  With  us,  my  friends,  the  case  is  different. 
We  are  not  Chauci,  at  the  mercy  of  the  floods. 
Our  sea  is  driven  out  for  ever  and  ever.  Granite 
endures." 

"  Ah,  that  embankment !  You  are  eloquent  to- 
night, Ando." 

"Eloquence  and  bravery:  these  be  the  two 


THEY  WENT  19 

gifts  of  our  race.     Eloquence  is  mine;  bravery, 
the  king's." 

"  Enough,  Ando,  enough !  "  the  ancient  mon- 
arch (himself  not  remarkable  for  sobriety) 
would  often  interpose  on  such  occasions. 
"  Enough !  It  is  lucky  you  are  generally  too 
drunk  to  be  eloquent.  Come,  let  us  have  an- 
other game  of  chess.  That  will  make  you  brave 
and  warlike  for  a  change." 

Manthis,  the  arch-druidess,  called  Ando  an 
untruthful  parasite,  who  sacrificed  everything 
to  his  belly.  She  had  not  the  slightest  faith  in 
that  embankment;  it  was  one  of  several  reasons 
why  she  had  moved  her  girls  away  from  the 
town,  out  of  harm's  way,  to  the  Sacred  Rock. 
She  had  read  the  city's  Awenn,  or  fate.  It  was 
doomed.  A  certain  section  of  the  populace 
known  as  "  old  believers  " —  the  armourer  Lelian 
was  one  of  them  —  agreed  with  her.  They  had 
ceased  to  trust  the  embankment;  they  saw  dan- 
ger ahead  ever  since  the  death  of  that  violent 
venerable,  the  first  Christian  missionary,  who 
predicted  ruin  to  the  town  in  certain  ominous 
words  about  "  retribution  from  the  sea." 

Meanwhile,  it  stood  firm.  .  .  . 

The  wide  plain  on  whose  furthermost  and 
westerly  projection  the  city  lay  had  all  been 
filched  from  the  sea,  inch  by  inch,  in  times  of 
yore,  The  waves  used  to  lap  against  the  very 


20  THEY  WENT 

hill-sides;  now  they  broke  five  miles  out,  or 
thereabouts.  Those  many  streamlets  descending 
from  the  heights  had  brought  down,  in  the  lapse 
of  ages,  their  silt  and  sand  and  stones,  driving 
the  ocean  back  from  its  old  shore.  So  things 
stood,  ere  yet  the  king  had  laid  the  foundations 
of  his  new  capital.  If  in  those  days  you  looked 
from  the  heights  toward  the  setting  sun,  you  be- 
held a  marshy  level  intersected  by  sluggish  rivu- 
lets that  crawled  in  wayward  fashion  about  its 
surface;  tidal  creeks,  rising  and  falling  mysteri- 
ously as  the  sea,  out  yonder,  drove  its  vital  flood 
into  them  or  coaxed  it  back  again.  It  was  an 
inhospitable  tract,  bearing  nothing  but  grey 
sedges  and  clumps  of  dismal  tamarisk  that 
leaned  landward  and  whistled  sharply  in  the 
wind.  Ghostly  sea-mists  scurried  across;  a 
mournful  wail  of  curlew  might  be  heard,  and 
the  heron  would  flap  its  wings  disconsolately 
over  the  muddy  expanse.  No  men  dwelt  here. 
The  soil  was  too  poor.  Moreover,  at  certain  in- 
tervals, when  tides  were  unusually  high  and 
westerly  gales  blowing  their  fiercest,  the  ocean, 
as  if  resentful  of  this  ancient  insult,  would  re- 
assert its  right  over  the  land.  Then  you  might 
see  water  invade  the  reed-beds,  creeping  about 
stealthily  till  the  whole  plain  was  covered  with  a 
lustrous  coating  like  glass;  soon  the  surface 
would  change  into  a  weltering  mass  of  billows  — 


THEY  WENT  21 

white-crested  waves,  rolling  one  over  the  other 
and  galloping  in  frantic  glee  against  that  old 
hill-barrier  of  theirs. 

"  The  horses  of  Aithryn,"  the  countrymen 
would  then  say,  taking  them  to  be  the  white 
manes  of  the  coursers  of  some  sea-god  that  strove 
to  regain  possession  of  his  former  domain,  of 
that  land  which  had  once  been  his.  "  Aithryn  is 
jealous,"  they  would  add.  "  He  wants  his  own 
back." 

Ignorant  folks,  ready  to  believe  anything! 
They  fabled  of  Aithryn's  palace  beneath  the 
waves,  with  columns  of  glowing  amethyst  and 
beryl;  they  told  of  his  minstrels,  his  wives,  his 
banquets;  everything  down  there  was  much  the 
same  as  on  earth,  only  fairer  —  far  fairer.  .  .  . 

Up  to  that  time  the  king  had  dwelt  in  his 
old  town  near  the  foot  of  the  hills  —  there, 
where  the  largest  of  those  rivulets  emerged  upon 
the  plain.  He  had  constructed  something  of  a 
port;  small,  flat-bottomed  craft  used  to  crawl 
up  stream,  their  brown  sails  fluttering  in  the 
breeze  or,  on  days  of  calm,  drawn  by  horses 
that  tugged  them  labouriously  along  the  wind- 
ing banks  to  that  humble  quay  where  the  cargo, 
such  as  it  was,  used  to  be  discharged.  That  was 
ended,  now.  Those  days  were  gone  and  past. 
The  old  town  stood  deserted,  its  houses  over- 
grown with  ivy  and  bramble,  its  gardens  merg- 


22  THEY  WENT 

ing  into  the  woodland  at  their  back  —  woodland 
through  whose  glades  you  could  wander,  a  three 
hours'  march  and  ever  up-hill,  into  the  sacred 
druidical  forest.  Then,  however  —  and  that  was 
long  ago,  the  king  being  in  his  fortieth  year  at 
the  time  and  the  young  princess  not  yet  born  — 
then  it  was  the  capital  of  a  formidable  realm. 
For  the  monarch  had  been  nothing  if  not  a  war- 
rior. 

In  his  fortieth  year  he  grew  tired  of  fighting; 
tired,  even,  of  hunting.  His  thoughts  turned 
towards  the  arts  of  peace.  He  would  devote 
himself  henceforth  to  commerce  and  administra- 
tion. How  make  his  loving  subjects  wealthier 
and  happier?  The  land  was  not  deficient  in 
riches;  there  were  mines  of  copper  and  silver 
and  salt,  but  what,  he  often  asked  himself, — 
what  was  the  use  of  these  minerals?  They 
could  not  be  exported  to  other  countries  in  any 
reasonable  quantity  owing  to  lack  of  means,  of 
transport  and  communications.  There  they  lay 
—  mere  stones !  "  I  cannot  feed  my  people  on 
stones,"  he  often  said.  A  harbour!  He  needed 
a  harbour. 

It  was  about  this  period  that  news  was  brought 
to  court  of  a  stupendous  sea-wall  erected  by  the 
ruler  of  the  Berovingians ;  of  the  harbour  which 
had  sprung  up  in  its  shelter,  of  the  ships  that 
now  called  there,  leaving  a  train  of  prosperity 


THEY  WENT  23 

in  their  rear.  He  made  enquiries  among  the 
few  merchants  who  then  frequented  his  capital, 
and  learnt  that  this  building  of  embankments 
was  considered  a  fashionable  occupation  for 
royal  personages ;  structures  of  such  a  kind  were 
then  rising  up  in  every  part  of  the  world,  the 
wisdom  of  their  builders  being  immortalized  by 
bards  and  handed  down  in  chronicles  to  posterity 
without  end.  This  gave  him  food  for  medita- 
tion. It  struck  him  that  he  would  like  to  do 
something  of  the  same  kind.  Like  all  sensible 
men,  he  had  no  objection  to  becoming,  as  it  were, 
immortal. 

"  I  have  it,"  he  said  one  day. 

Often  had  he  looked  down  from  his  palace 
upon  the  broad  and  ugly  level  of  swamp;  often 
had  he  seen  that  bleak  spit  of  land  thrust  into 
the  waves,  five  miles  yonder,  by  the  central  and 
largest  of  its  streamlets. 

"  The  place  for  a  port !  "  he  cried. 

It  would  be  warfare,  too!  warfare  of  the  kind 
he  liked  best  —  into  the  enemy's  country,  into 
the  realm  of  that  domineering  sea  which  on  oc- 
casion was  wont  to  gallop  with  impunity  up  to 
the  very  walls  of  this  city.  His  terrestrial  ad- 
versaries had  all  yielded  to  his  arm.  Now  the 
sea  should  yield. 

He  mentioned  the  matter  to  his  counsellors, 
having,  like  all  sensible  men,  no  objection  to 


24  THEY  WENT 

hearing  advice,  provided  he  could  always  do  as 
he  liked  afterwards.  Whatever  arguments  may 
have  been  employed,  they  agreed  upon  one  point : 
that  the  druids  must  first  be  consulted. 

"  By  all  means,' '  he  replied.  "  Who  would 
dream  of  acting  otherwise?  " 

They  dispatched  an  embassy  which  returned  in 
due  course,  bearing  a  response  to  this  effect: 
Devour  not  salt  with  stones. 

"  That  settles  it,"  remarked  the  monarch  joy- 
fully, before  anybody  else  had  time  to  think  what 
the  druids  meant  by  those  dark  words.  "  That 
settles  it!  What  have  I  often  said?  My  poor 
people  have  nothing  but  salt  and  stones  to  eat. 
This  state  of  affairs  cannot  be  allowed  to  con- 
tine.  You  hear,  now,  what  the  Enlightened  Ones 
have  commanded:  devour  not  salt  with  stones. 
Our  miserable  inland  life  must  end.  It  seems  to 
me,  friends,  that  all  my  previous  exploits  in 
peace  and  war  shall  count  as  nothing  in  com- 
parison with  this  new  one.  Let  me  be  assured 
of  your  hearty  co-operation,  and  woe  betide  him 
who  endeavours  to  thwart  our  wishes!  If  we 
cannot  create  an  heir  to  the  throne,  (it  was  the 
bitterest  disappointment  of  his  life  that  his  mar- 
ried union  had  hitherto  not  been  blessed  with 
children)  we  can  at  least  create  a  harbour,  which, 
as  you  will  presently  find  out,  is  a  great  deal 


THEY  WENT  25 

better  than  nothing.  We  can;  and  will.  So 
help  us,  Belen." 

As  though  to  drive  away  the  last  shred  of 
doubt  which  may  have  lingered  in  the  sovereign's 
mind  regarding  the  advisability  of  his  enter- 
prise, he  was  visited,  while  he  lay  that  night  in 
sleep,  by  a  strange  and  lovely  omen.  A  pink 
porpoise  came  flying  into  the  window  of  his 
chamber  and,  after  whirling  silently  round  the 
room  three  or  four  times,  sat  down  on  the  pillow 
beside  his  head  and  began  to  laugh  immoderately. 

"  What  are  you  a  king  for?  "  it  seemed  to  say. 

He  started  up  in  blackest  midnight  with  that 
laughter  still  ringing  in  his  ears. 

What  am  I  a  king  for?  he  wondered.  Now: 
what  on  earth  does  it  mean?  I  give  it  up! 

The  queen  was  slumbering  at  his  side.  He 
nudged  her  gently. 

"  Leave  me  alone,"  she  said  in  that  peculiar 
voice,  dead  level  and  almost  a  whisper,  which 
he  had  often  heard  her  use  on  such  occasions  of 
nocturnal  interruption.  "  Leave  me  alone.  I 
am  asleep.  Don't  wake  me.  In  the  morn- 
ing  » 

"  Won't  I  wake  you?  This  is  very  important, 
my  dear,  and  not  what  you  think."  He  began 
to  pull  her  hair  with  needless  violence.  "  Tell 
me,  what  am  I  a  king  for?  " 


26  THEY  WENT 

"Why,  to  do  what  you  please.  Only  let  me 
sleep  again.  I  want  to  finish  that  pleasant 
dream.  Where  was  I?  Ah,  I  shall  never  catch 
it  again " 

"  To  do  what  I  please.  It  is  exactly  what 
I  thought.  The  porpoise  —  how  it  laughed! 
Wake  up.  Perhaps  it  will  laugh  again.  Wake 
up;  I  like  to  converse.  Are  we  never  going  to 
have  an  heir  to  the  throne?  " 

"  In  the  morning " 

"  In  the  morning.  Always  in  the  morning. 
And  this  is  what  one  calls  a  wife.  Something 
will  have  to  be  done  about  it.  Well,  well !  The 
embankment  shall  make  amends  for  your  de- 
ficiencies as  spouse  and  mother.  We  purpose  to 
begin  preparations  without  delay.  We  can ;  and 
will.  So  help  us,  Belen." 

"  In  the  morning.  .  .  ." 


CHAPTER  III 

WORKERS  were  required  for  that  great 
undertaking  —  slaves;  an  army  of 
slaves.  Preparations  for  a  man-hunt 
on  a  larger  scale  than  usual  were  begun  and 
ended ;  the  cavalry  had  been  completely  reorgan- 
ized; those  savage  dogs  of  wolfish  strain,  each 
pack  obedient  to  its  own  leader,  were  trained  to 
the  uttermost  of  their  strength ;  old  Lelian  too  — 
young  Lelian,  as  he  then  was  —  had  invented 
some  wondrous  new  weapons  for  the  occasion. 
So  they  left  the  town,  and  never  did  the  sov- 
ereign's military  talent  shine  forth  with  brighter 
effulgence. 

He  led  his  troops  first  against  the  more  im- 
mediate neighbours,  capturing,  from  one,  seven 
hundred  men  or  thereabouts ;  from  another,  four 
hundred  and  thirty,  together  with  over  a  thou- 
sand women  and  children  who  had  imprudently 
been  left  exposed  and  were  soon  exchanged  for 
two  hundred  lusty  men ;  among  the  Brambigones, 
further  afield,  he  succeeded  in  taking,  besides  a 
number  of  warriors,  the  king's  own  daughter, 
an  elderly  girl  who  was  ransomed  for  half  a 
thousand  males;  the  Volusinians,  yet  more  in- 

27 


28  THEY  WENT 

land  —  he  was  to  see  them  again,  the  Volusini- 
ans,  forty  years  later !  —  they  yielded,  together 
with  a  host  of  ordinary  captives,  one  single  in- 
dividual worth  an  army  in  himself,  to  wit,  the 
Roman  Ormidius  Limpidus,  an  engineer  of  high- 
est capacity  who,  after  being  detected  in  a  dis- 
reputable intrigue  with  some  high-born  dame  in 
the  household  of  his  own  country's  proconsul, 
(he  never  could  leave  ladies  alone)  had  fled  for 
protection  to  the  ruler  of  these  same  Volusinians, 
and  was  employed  by  him  at  the  time  of  his  cap- 
ture as  court  butler  and,  in  spare  moments,  tutor 
to  his  twenty-three  sons. 

In  fact,  the  raid  was  pursued  to  the  very 
boundaries  of  the  distant  and  fierce  Alloquisti. 
Here  the  king  drew  in  his  victorious  followers. 
Those  Alloquisti  had  the  reputation  of  being 
troublesome  warriors  — "  prickly  people,"  they 
called  them.  So  little  recked  they  of  wounds 
that,  instead  of  covering  their  bodies  with  ar- 
mour like  other  fighting  men,  they  actually 
doffed  in  battle  their  deerskins,  the  only  garment 
they  (seldom)  wore,  and  fought  stark  naked  like 
the  blue  savages  they  were  —  they  hated  their 
clothes  being  "hacked  about";  so  little  cared 
they  for  the  refinements  of  life  that,  instead  of 
allowing  their  prisoners  to  be  ransomed,  they 
gambled  them  away  amid  shrieks  of  laughter, 
and  tossed  them  into  the  cooking-pot.  Here, 


THEY  WENT  20 

then,  the  monarch  paused  and,  having  counted 
up  the  tale  of  his  captives  and  discovered  their 
numbers  to  be  sufficient  for  the  purpose  in  hand, 
turned  homewards  again. 

"  The  Alloquisti  can  wait/'  he  decided. 
"  What  do  we  want  with  blue  monsters  running 
about  our  new  town?  Think  of  our  women!  " 

This,  his  last,  was  the  most  glorious  and  profit- 
able of  all  the  sovereign's  campaigns. 

Now  Ormidius  Limpidus  was  not  a  Roman  for 
nothing.  He  knew  his  business.  He  rose  to 
the  occasion.  He  performed  wonders.  He  sur- 
passed himself.  After  selecting  a  group  of  com- 
petent subordinates  and  overseers,  he  opened 
quarries  into  the  granite  entrails  of  the  hills; 
athwart  the  marshy  plain  was  laid  down  a  track 
of  wood  along  which  you  might  see  journeying, 
day  and  night,  an  endless  procession  of  bullocks 
and  horses  that  dragged  the  huge  building  blocks 
to  a  certain  piece  of  ground  near  the  shore,  where 
a  troop  of  several  hundred  masons  was  employed 
in  hewing  them  into  shape.  The  work  proceeded 
rapidly;  never  fast  enough  for  the  king,  who 
now  began  to  neglect  all  his  other  royal  duties 
in  order  to  direct  the  operations,  as  he  called  it. 
"If  I  am  not  on  the  spot,"  he  would  declare, 
"  nothing  is  ever  done."  He  could  be  seen  en- 
thusiastically carrying  the  stones  about,  or 
splashing  himself  with  mortar;  he  swore  that 


30  THEY  WENT 

architects  were  the  slowest  people  on  earth  — 
anybody  but  this  cursed  clean-shaven  Roman 
would  have  finished  the  business  in  half  the  time. 
On  such  occasions,  the  engineer  would  tremble 
for  his  life,  and  implore  the  protection  of  his 
family  genius.  What  if  the  king  one  day  should 
lose  his  temper  in  good  earnest? 

Soon  the  great  embankment  and  the  walls  of 
the  city  stood  in  their  place;  a  noble  aqueduct, 
bearing  a  river  of  water  on  its  back,  strode  in 
gallant  arches  across  the  plain;  and  calmly, 
secure  from  every  wind,  the  oval-shaped  har- 
bour lay  in  the  centre  of  the  town,  replenished 
by  inrushing  tides  and  the  water  of  that  old 
streamlet  which  had  been  artificially  deepened 
and  widened  to  allow  the  largest  fleet  of  vessels 
to  rest  at  anchor  within.  Palaces  had  grown  up, 
the  royal  residence  first  of  all;  not  to  speak  of 
the  Great  Drain!  Thus,  in  a  remarkably  short 
space  of  time,  a  town  arose  on  that  sandy  spit 
where,  in  former  times,  not  a  blade  of  grass 
would  grow.  On  a  fixed  day,  there  took  place  a 
transmigration  of  all  the  inhabitants  from  that 
former  capital  on  the  hillside,  thenceforward 
abandoned  to  wolves  and  owlets. 

Folks  were  delighted  with  the  change  of  scene 
—  all  save  the  section  known  as  the  old  be- 
lievers —  no  one  more  so  than  the  monarch  him- 
self. For  if  Ormidius  had  proved  of  some  little 


THEY  WENT  31 

use  as  executant,  the  idea  of  the  town  was  un- 
deniably his  own  from  beginning  to  end.  The 
Koman,  on  the  other  hand,  in  proportion  as  his 
task  drew  to  its  close,  became  less  delighted. 
He  waxed  thoughtful,  and  ever  more  thoughtful. 
He  was  nothing  but  a  captive ;  a  most  unpleasant 
state  of  affairs !  Ormidius  loved  his  life.  Often 
he  thanked  Mercury  and  Jupiter  Optimus  Maxi- 
mus  and  several  other  gods  for  allowing  him  to 
survive  a  little  longer  and  fall  into  the  hands 
of  this  race  rather  than  into  those,  for  example, 
of  the  mirthful  Alloquisti.  What  would  now 
happen?  Would  they  sell  him  again  —  and  to 
whom?  Would  they  do  him  to  death  —  and 
how?  Boasted?  Boiled?  Or  maybe,  his  term 
of  service  ended,  throw  him  into  his  own  master- 
piece, that  Great  Drain  which  told  no  tales?  He 
grew  thin  at  the  prospect;  he  took  to  skulking 
about  and  trying  to  look  like  somebody  else;  he 
was  on  the  point  of  cultivating  a  moustache  and 
wearing  checked  breeches  like  a  Volusinian,  pre- 
pared for  anything  save  what  actually  happened 
when,  one  day,  the  king  slapped  him  on  the 
shoulder  in  jovial  fashion  and  asked  what  re- 
ward he  would  like. 

"A     hundred     female     slaves,"     he    replied 
modestly. 

"  You  shall  have  them.     And  a  house  as  well, 
wherein  you  can  abide  permanently.     We  may 


32  THEY  WENT 

require  your  assistance  on  some  later  occasion. 
Pray  don't  consider  yourself  a  captive  any 
longer.  I  will  not  hear  of  such  a  thing.  I 
always  thought,"  he  added,—"  I  always  thought 
the  Komans  were  solid  people,  from  what  I  had 
been  told  of  them.  Now  I  know  it." 

In  this  house,  accordingly,  Ormidius  Limpidus 
dwelt,  giving  advice  on  technical  matters  to  all 
who  cared  to  ask  for  it,  since,  like  everybody  else, 
he  had  a  reputation  to  keep  up;  there  he  dwelt, 
living  on  that  same  reputation  and  on  the  sov- 
ereign's bounty  and  growing  to  be  an  old,  old 
man  with  love  of  life  and  ladies  unimpaired,  till 
the  day  when  he  vanished  mysteriously  after  a 
little  misunderstanding  with  the  princess  —  a 
mere  child  at  the  time,  but  one  who  had  already 
developed  architectural  notions,  and  a  temper,  of 
her  own  —  a  misunderstanding  about  a  certain 
cornice  to  her  tower.  .  .  . 

It  was  a  moist  site,  that  of  the  new  town, 
facing  sunset  and  reeking  with  sea-mists. 
Though  situated  under  a  northern  sky,  breaths 
of  warm  wind  and  currents  of  warm  water  crept 
up  to  the  shore,  borne  landwards  by  some  tepid 
stream  which  flowed  through  the  ocean  from  the 
other  end  of  the  world.  The  plain  at  the  back, 
protected  by  a  monstrous  dyke,  had  meanwhile 
put  on  a  new  and  smiling  face.  It  was  green 
with  verdure,  for  the  water-courses  had  been 


THEY  WENT  33 

banked  up  and  straightened  —  the  soil  drained 
and  manured;  countryfolk,  living  in  willow 
cabins,  planted  on  that  once  bare  expanse  their 
fruit  trees  and  corn  and  flax  and  madder,  their 
far-famed  beetroots  and  cucumbers  and  every 
other  kind  of  crop  for  the  delectation  of  the 
citizens,  and  their  own. 

As  for  the  town  itself,  it  projected  into  the 
waves  at  the  furthermost  extremity  of  the  plain, 
on  either  side  of  what  had  formerly  been  an  un- 
sightly creek,  its  streets  and  palaces  enclosed 
within  their  mighty  granite  bulwark  like  the  eggs 
in  a  blackbird's  nest.  To  bar  out  the  sea  and 
prevent  its  waters  from  flooding  the  houses  at 
exceptionally  high  tides,  a  massive  wooden  gate- 
way had  been  let  into  the  embankment  at  the 
point  where  ships  entered  to  reach  the  harbour; 
it  could  be  opened  and  closed  by  a  simple  con- 
trivance, a  kind  of  lock,  of  which  the  king  kept 
the  key.  At  first  he  hung  it  at  his  girdle  from 
sheer  caprice,  and  because  he  liked  to  watch  the 
water  filtering  into  the  docks  as  he  opened  the 
gate  with  due  ceremony;  later  on,  he  took  to 
wearing  it  always  and  regarding  it  as  a  symbol 
or  emblem  of  his  royal  power:  could  he  not  de- 
stroy the  place,  even  as  he  had  raised  it  out  of 
nothing? 

Such,  then,  was  the  city  during  that  earlier 
period  —  a  port,  a  thing  of  mere  utility ;  for  the 


34  THEY  WENT 

princess,  who  transformed  it  into  a  thing  of  joy 
and  beauty,  into  a  wonder,  was  not  to  be  born 
for  twenty  long  years.  Now  was  accomplished 
the  task  of  driving  the  sea  back  from  this  old 
disputed  territory.  Vainly  it  ramped  against 
the  barriers,  and  sighed  and  moaned  and  clashed, 
striving  to  undermine  their  foundations.  They 
held  fast.  Their  builder  was  a  Kornan,  who 
knew  the  properties  of  stone  and  cement;  not 
for  nothing  had  he  studied,  long  ago,  his  Lucilius 
Galba  and  Varro's  Disciplinae  and  Fabianus  and 
Vitruvius  Pollio  and  Quintus  Niger  and  all  the 
rest  of  them. 

Men  no  longer  talked  of  the  "  horses  of 
Aithryn."  They  forgot  his  very  name. 

And  yet,  like  many  creatures  reputed  fabulous, 
this  Aithryn  lived,  something  of  a  pirate  by 
hereditary  instincts,  a  veritable  king,  human  in 
shape  and  failings.  The  realm  of  the  man  who 
was  to  play  so  disastrous  a  part  in  the  fortunes 
of  the  city  lay  among  certain  dim  and  distant 
northern  islands,  not  unknown  to  the  Phoeni- 
cians and  later  races,  who  imported  therefrom 
their  ingots  of  tin  which  crossed  the  ocean  in 
frail  barques  of  ozier,  covered  with  hides;  in 
later  ages,  again,  there  was  commerce  and  riv- 
alry and  warfare  between  these  same  hyper- 
boreans and  those  others  on  the  mainland  — 
warfare  that  lasted  over  a  thousand  years.  In 


THEY  WENT  35 

the  meantime,  owing  to  piracy  and  the  troubled 
state  of  the  world,  old  relations  had  been  broken 
off  and  even  forgotten,  though  some  memory  of 
former  sea-raids  may  have  lingered  in  that  tradi- 
tion of  Aithryn's  horses,  of  his  being  jealous  and 
"  wanting  his  own  back."  He  himself  had  grown 
into  a  myth,  a  legend.  So  speedily  are  men 
changed  into  gods. 

It  was  a  strange  coincidence  that  the  only 
citizen  of  the  town  who  knew  of  the  existence  of 
this  Aithryn  of  flesh  and  blood  happened  to  be 
the  princess  herself.  She  learnt  a  few  details 
about  him  —  not  nearly  as  many  as  she  would 
have  liked  —  from  the  Greek  merchant  Theoph- 
ilus,  a  provokingly  reticent  person,  whom  she 
was  to  meet  for  the  first  time  that  very  eve- 
ning at  her  father's  palace  and  who,  later  on, 
gained  so  powerful  an  influence  over  her  as  to 
become  her  closest  friend  and  inspirer.  It  would 
seem  that  Theophilus,  a  much-travelled  man,  had 
actually  visited  the  court  of  Aithryn  more  than 
once,  on  some  errand  of  business.  How  he 
reached  it,  and  what  the  nature  of  that  errand 
was,  the  young  lady  never  discovered.  She  had 
glimpses,  however,  from  his  talk,  of  a  region  of 
sombre  forest  and  moorland  grazed  by  shaggy 
cattle,  of  bleak  estuaries  where  they  tumbled  the 
fish  in  cataracts  of  silver  out  of  the  nets;  she 
saw,  in  imagination,  that  huge  town  or  village 


36  THEY  WENT 

built  of  white  fir-wood  smeared  with  pitch,  in 
whose  centre  stood  the  castle,  a  rambling  struc- 
ture large  enough  to  shelter  an  army,  and  painted 
red  and  green  —  the  king,  he  said,  was  "  very 
fond  of  ornament  " —  in  mazy,  crazy,  zig-zag  pat- 
terns. As  to  Aithryn  himself: 

"  His  real  name  is  Miliuc.  There  is  nothing 
mysterious  or  wonderful  about  him.  A  dissem- 
bler, a  worm  of  a  man,  and  absurdly  fond  of 
his  children." 

There  had  been  Aithryns  from  time  immemo- 
rial, he  went  on;  it  was  a  kingly  designation 
which  descended  from  father  to  son,  and  signified 
nothing  more  than  red  or  ruddy.  All  Aithryns 
were  alike,  male  and  female;  all  were  golden- 
haired,  of  remarkable  personal  beauty,  domineer- 
ing, resourceful,  cruel ;  aspiring  souls  and  men  of 
bold  invention ;  and  this  one,  he  explained,  might 
have  been  the  greatest  of  his  race  had  the  promise 
of  his  youth  not  been  cut  short  by  an  accident. 

So  she  pieced  together  the  information  which 
Theophilus,  at  one  time  or  another,  was  kind 
enough  to  supply  her. 

She  gathered  that  a  stroke  on  the  head  from  a 
battle-ax  during  an  encounter  with  some  turbu- 
lent neighbours  had  changed  the  king's  whole 
nature.  Although  the  skull  was  trepanned,  and 
the  wound,  treated  with  fomentations  of  elder- 
juice  and  the  resin  of  pine-wood,  healed  up  to 


THEY  WENT  37 

outward  appearance  in  the  most  satisfactory 
manner,  Aithryn  was  observed  to  be  never  the 
same  as  before.  Something  took  place  within 
him;  his  creative  force  and  independence  oozed 
away,  as  it  were,  with  those  few  drops  of  blood. 
He  could  still  dissemble ;  his  charm  of  person  re- 
mained unimpaired;  on  the  other  hand,  he  grew 
to  be  afraid  of  his  own  judgment  —  grew  to  be 
weak  of  will,  and  proportionately  distrustful. 
He  did  what  no  ruler  of  men  should  do.  He  be- 
gan to  lean  on  others. 

The  Christians  had  already  made  some  prog- 
ress in  his  realm;  and  up  to  the  date  of  this 
accident  he  had  successfully  played  off  their  pre- 
tensions against  those  of  the  druids,  to  his  own 
advantage.  Now,  losing  all  initiative,  he  fell 
under  the  influence  of  the  white-robed  ones,  and 
of  them  alone.  They  duly  flattered  him,  as  the 
Christians  in  their  place  would  likewise  have 
done;  they  recognized  his  infirmity,  and  con- 
trived to  give  him  the  same  advice  which  the 
Christians,  had  they  been  his  favourites,  would 
also  have  given  him. 

"  Be  obscure,"  they  hinted,  "  and  men  will 
think  you  strong  and  wise  like  your  fathers. 
You  have  a  reputation  to  keep  up." 

It  was  through  certain  spies  —  of  whom,  like 
all  wavering  monarchs,  he  had  a  considerable 
supply  —  that  he  heard  of  the  construction  of 


38  THEY  WENT 

the  new  town  and  its  sea-wall  on  the  distant 
continent.  The  idea  irked  him;  he  suddenly  re- 
membered that  he  would  have  liked  to  build 
something  of  the  same  kind  himself,  and  men- 
tioned the  matter  to  his  counsellors.  Whatever 
arguments  may  have  been  employed,  they  agreed 
upon  one  point:  that  the  druids  must  first  be 
consulted. 

"By  all  means,"  he  replied.  "Who  would 
dream  of  acting  otherwise?  " 

They  dispatched  an  embassy  which  returned 
in  due  course,  bearing  a  response  to  this  effect: 
Devour  not  salt  with  stones. 

"  That  settles  it,"  remarked  the  monarch  rue- 
fully, before  anybody  else  had  time  to  think  what 
the  druids  meant  by  those  dark  words.  "  That 
settles  it !  The  sea  is  salt.  The  sea  may  not  be 
devoured  with  stones,  with  structures  of  ma- 
sonry. We  must  abandon  the  enterprise." 

In  short,  he  obeyed  the  druids,  who  therefore 
said,  as  the  Christians  would  have  said  in  their 
place  (and  actually  did  say,  later  on)  : 

"  A  good  man,  our  Aithryn." 

Yet  the  reports  of  his  spies  made  him  more 
and  more  envious.  In  olden  days,  while  still  en- 
joying full  health,  he  could  never  have  resisted 
the  temptation  of  sailing  down  with  his  fleet  and 
attempting  to  destroy  the  new  city ;  he  could  not 
bear  the  thought  that  this  land,  formerly  neither 


THEY  WENT  39 

earth  nor  sea,  should  now  be  converted  into  a 
rich  mart  and  threaten  to  engulf  what  little 
trade  his  own  country  might  do  with  regions 
East  and  South.  Ancestral  astuteness  came  to 
his  aid.  He  thought : 

"  What  cannot  be  done  by  force  may  be  done 
by  guile.  The  place  lies  low;  the  sea  may  help 
me.  Meanwhile,  I  will  find  out  things  for  my- 
self. These  spies  are  no  more  to  be  trusted 
than  anybody  else.  .  .  ." 

It  was  a  sunny  afternoon  when  his  spacious 
green  boat,  after  a  two  weeks'  journey,  came 
within  view  of  that  town  and  its  embankment. 
Not  a  breath  of  wind  was  astir;  the  sails  were 
furled;  they  skirted  the  dyke  with  mighty  oars, 
and  something  drove  Aithryn  to  say  to  the 
rowers : 

"  Set  me  down  yonder " 

at  a  sequestered  point,  namely,  where  a  hand- 
some gentlewoman,  dressed  in  a  flowing  robe  of 
blue,  sat  working  at  her  embroidery,  while  a 
maid  stood  at  a  respectful  distance  behind. 

It  happened  to  be  the  queen  herself.  Being 
of  a  simple-minded,  sentimental  nature,  she  often 
came  to  this  spot  to  enjoy  the  view  and  a  little 
solitude  after  the  trouble  and  din  of  the  palace. 
Just  then  she  was  singing,  as  she  often  did, 
her  favourite  melody  —  an  old  song  about  a 
swan  that  came  sailing  on  broad  wings  down 


40  THEY  WENT 

from  the  white  North,  and  wondering,  as  she 
often  did,  what  the  swan  came  for,  out  of  those 
dim  and  distant  regions. 

"  I  wish  I  knew,"  she  thought. 

As  Aithryn  stepped  on  shore  and  moved 
towards  her  she  raised  her  eyes  gravely,  puz- 
zling who  this  glorious  stranger  might  be.  For 
he  looked  more  like  a  god  than  a  man,  with  ruddy 
lips  and  sparkling  eyes,  and  curls  that  descended 
to  his  shoulders  like  the  fire  in  the  setting  sun. 
And  what  charm  of  manner,  what  insinuating 
grace  in  those  words  of  frank  greeting!  Soon 
he  was  telling  her  some  untruthful  tale  about 
himself  and  learning,  in  return,  who  she  was, 
which  increased  a  thousandfold  his  seeming  re- 
spect and  admiration.  He  gleaned  much  else 
besides;  of  the  town's  resources,  of  Ormidius 
Limpidus  and  his  stout  impregnable  masonry,  of 
the  key  at  the  king's  girdle,  of  their  childlessness 
and  other  troubles  great  and  small ;  then,  having 
garnered  all  the  necessary  information,  he 
added : 

"  Your  silvery  voice  —  it  drew  us  to  the  shore 
from  far  away;  we  took  it  to  be  that  of  a  mer- 
maid !  And  what  pretty  beads  you  are  wearing ! 
Amber,  you  call  it?  "  (He  possessed  174  chests 
full  of  amber  at  his  castle.)  "How  well  they 
match  that  exquisite  blue  robe  which,  in  its  turn, 
tries  vainly  to  rival  your  eyes  in  splendour.  I 


THEY  WENT  41 

never  saw  such  eyes;  are  they  not  carved  out  of 
the  sky  of  mid-day?  You  have  made  me  love 
that  colour.  My  boat,  you  perceive,  is  not  blue 
—  not  yet.  But  soon  it  will  be!  Everything 
shall  be  blue  henceforward  —  everything !  " 

The  lady,  unaccustomed  to  such  bold  adula- 
tion, remarked  almost  shyly : 

"  It  looks  a  brave  vessel,  wave-tinted,  and  fash- 
ioned like  a  bird.  Of  uncommon  build,  I  must 
say." 

"  You  seafaring  folks  are  rightly  concerned 
about  such  things.  Would  it  please  you  to  step 
on  board  and  observe  more  at  your  ease?  " 

"  Gladly." 

Such  blame  as  attaches  to  this  freak  of  boreal 
gallantry  on  the  part  of  Aithryn  should  not  be 
withheld.  It  appears  to  his  credit,  none  the 
less,  that  instead  of  carrying  off  the  lady  to 
ransom  or  murdering  her  outright,  as  would 
have  been  considered  legitimate  by  many  a  king 
of  his  own  and  subsequent  periods,  he  merely 
offered  her  some  refreshment  and,  after  making 
himself  uncommonly  pleasant  and  consoling  hery 
with  many  fair  words  and  acts,  for  her  childless- 
ness and  other  troubles  great  and  small,  set  her 
on  shore  again. 

Then  he  sailed  away;  back  into  the  white 
North. 

"  Now  I  know,"  thought  the  queen. 


42  THEY  WENT 

For  a  long  while  she  watched  his  vessel  as  it 
clove  the  water  and  receded  from  her  sight, 
growing  smaller  and  smaller,  and  rounder  and 
rounder.  "  Like  an  apple,"  she  fancied,  and 
then,  after  a  long  pause,  she  added  sentiment- 
ally :  "  More  like  a  little  green  pea."  Suddenly 
it  shrank  away.  She  looked  at  the  spot  where 
the  ship  had  been ;  nothing  remained  but  a  wide 
watery  expanse  that  mirrored  the  sunset-glow. 
Then  she  felt  a  void  in  her  heart,  and  a  kind- 
ness towards  this  winsome  stranger.  Would  he 
ever  return? 

Aithryn  purposed  to  return  in  due  course. 
Like  many  of  his  race,  he  seldom  did  a  good 
action  without  calculating  on  some  ulterior 
profit.  He  had  refrained  from  abducting  the 
lady,  "  for  what,"  he  asked,  "  would  be  the  use 
of  a  ransom?  It  will  never  destroy  the  city." 
Better  far,  he  argued,  to  sow  the  seeds  of  discord 
within  its  very  walls ;  to  rear  up  for  himself  an 
ally  on  the  spot,  some  Aithryn-like  creature, 
domineering,  resourceful,  cruel,  on  whose  sym- 
pathy and  co-operation  he  could  rely,  when  the 
time  was  ripe,  after  revealing  himself  for  what 
he  was  .  .  . 

The  encounter  of  the  queen  with  the  handsome 
sea-rover  was  pretty  generally  known  in  the 
town,  but  nobody,  not  even  the  lady  herself,  spoke 
of  the  matter  to  the  king.  They  thought  he 


THEY  WENT  43 

might  possibly  be  angry,  because  his  consort,  like 
everybody  else,  had  a  reputation  to  preserve,  the 
reputation  of  a  loving  and  faithful  spouse. 

She  lived  up  to  it,  for  not  very  long  afterwards 
a  daughter  was  born  at  court,  an  event  which 
caused  boundless  rejoicings  among  the  citizens, 
though  the  royal  father  himself  was  slightly  dis- 
appointed; he  thought  Belen  might  have  given 
him  a  boy,  while  he  was  about  it,  "  after  keeping 
us  waiting  all  these  years." 

"  Better  luck  next  time,"  said  his  lady,  with 
a  fond  smile. 

The  little  one  was  regarded  as  a  portent,  not 
only  because  she  was  amazingly  beautiful  and 
had  never  —  no,  not  once  —  been  known  to  cry, 
but  also  because  her  father  at  the  time  of  her 
birth  was  rather  an  old  man,  being  then  over 
sixty  years  of  age.  As  for  the  queen  —  it  was 
noticed  that  she,  from  the  day  of  that  adventure 
onwards,  loved  more  than  ever  to  sit  on  the  em- 
bankment during  the  afternoon,  with  her  maid 
and  embroidery,  returning  wistfully  to  her  royal 
duties  when  the  sun  sank  into  the  waves.  It 
was  her  brief  hour  of  freedom,  she  used  to  say. 
Here  she  rested,  gazing  upon  the  sea.  Would  he 
ever  come  again?  "He  promised,"  she  often 
thought.  "And  yet,  if  he  does,  I  shall  faint 
away  —  I  know  I  shall.  I  could  never  bear  to 
look  into  those  eyes.  I  have  seen  them  since, 


44  THEY  WENT 

every  day  of  my  life.  I  have  touched  those 
ruddy  locks.  .  .  ." 

Grown  somewhat  stouter  and  more  faded  of 
complexion,  with  grey  streaks  in  her  hair,  she 
was  reposing  here  at  that  very  moment,  twenty 
years  later,  profiting  by  the  gleam  of  sunshine 
after  the  rain,  and  waiting  to  see  whether  the 
princess  would  pass  by  on  the  way  to  her  tower. 
She  would  have  liked  to  speak  to  her  daughter 
before  evening,  being  ill  at  ease  about  the  ar- 
rival of  the  new  Christian  preacher  and  its  pos- 
sible complications. 

The  young  lady,  attended  by  Harr6,  came  in 
sight. 

"  Always  at  the  same  spot,  mother  dear ! 
And  always  in  blue  —  a  tint,  by  the  way,  which 
I  rather  dislike.  And  always  those  old-fash- 
ioned amber  beads !  I  declare  you  are  the  only 
person  alive  who  still  wears  amber.  Why 
not  a  necklace  of  jet  or  lignite?  Or  an  iron 
bracelet?  Or  would  you  like  some  pearls  of  col- 
oured glass?  I  think  I  can  still  find  a  string  or 
two  in  the  rubbish  market." 

"  Amber  was  good  enough  for  my  genera- 
tion. .  .  .  You  received  my  message  through 
that  painted  terror,  that  little  korigan  of  yours? 
You  are  coming  tonight?  I  beg  of  you,  dear 
girl,  do  not  fail  us.  There  is  nothing  I  dread 
more  than  scenes ;  we  should  always  avoid  them, 


\ 
THEY  WENT  45 

if  only  for  the  sake  of  your  dear  father.  Eighty- 
three  years  —  think  of  it !  He  is  a  wonderful 
old  man.  We  may  count  on  you?  " 

"  Have  you  ever  known  me  disobey  my 
mother?  " 

"  You  are  a  sensible  girl,  as  a  rule.  But  why 
then,  naughty  child  —  why  are  you  not  wearing 
the  shawl  I  sent?  It  comes  from  the  Roof  of 
the  World.  You  will  catch  cold." 

"  If  you  only  knew  how  warm  I  was,  without 
shawls  or  anything  else.  Boiling  all  over,  all 
the  time." 

"  Oh,  hush,  dear !  "  said  the  queen.  "  Don't 
talk  like  one  of  those  dreadful  creatures  down 
by  the  harbour.  No  princess  is  ever  quite  so 
hot." 


CHAPTEE  IV 

NIGHT  drew  on  apace.  The  banquet  was 
ended;  a  savour  of  roasted  meats  and 
stews  hung  about,  mingling  with  harsh 
breaths  from  the  sea  that  invaded  even  the  inner 
regions  of  the  palace.  You  could  hear  the  waves 
moaning,  near  at  hand. 

The  guests,  many-tinted  and  many-tongued, 
were  discoursing  of  this  and  that ;  the  king  him- 
self, having  done  his  duty,  sat  in  an  interior 
room,  a  mighty  tankard  at  his  side,  playing  chess. 
It  was  his  latest  diversion.  Some  Oriental  of 
renown  had  introduced  the  game  at  court,  de- 
scribing it  as  a  royal  pastime  —  much  to  the  an- 
noyance of  all  of  them,  for  the  monarch  promptly 
succumbed  to  its  fascination  and  insisted  on  their 
learning  it  and  playing  with  him.  An  old  man, 
unaccustomed  to  be  thwarted,  he  was  liable  to 
grow  grumpy  when  beaten.  It  was  difficult  to 
avoid  that  result,  the  only  person  who  almost 
invariably  succeeded  in  the  feat  being  Ando,  the 
court  prophet. 

Here  was  the  princess,  smiling  and  glittering. 
At  her  mother's  urgent  request,  she  had  put  in 
an  appearance;  she  always  gratified  her  par- 

46 


THEY  WENT  47 

ents  —  nearly  always.  The  queen  moved  about 
with  kindly  words,  trying  to  make  everybody 
feel  at  home,  which  nobody  ever  did.  It  was 
lucky,  they  thought,  that  there  was  something  to 
look  forward  to  later  in  the  evening  —  an  enter- 
tainment at  the  tower  of  the  princess,  due  to  be- 
gin after  the  king  had  been  safely  put  to  bed  in 
his  own  apartment.  A  slightly  different  kind  of 
society  was  gathered  yonder,  and  a  slightly  dif- 
ferent atmosphere  prevailed. 

There  was  no  avoiding  these  ceremonies.  All 
the  distinguished  citizens  of  the  place  were  con- 
strained, once  a  week  or  so,  to  pay  their  respects 
at  court,  particularly  on  occasions  like  this,  when 
unusual  strangers  were  expected.  Neighbouring 
princelings  and  chieftains,  attended  by  one  or 
more  of  their  wives,  were  also  wont  to  grace  these 
halls;  uncouth  personages  with  stained  limbs 
who  boozed  their  liquor  through  huge  mous- 
taches as  through  a  sieve;  they  stalked  and  swag- 
gered about  in  spears  and  shields  and  so  little 
else  that  the  kindly  queen  often  longed  to  lend 
them  a  few  woollen  garments  for  the  evening. 
They  could  even  be  seen,  some  of  the  wilder  of 
them,  gnawing  their  meat  like  lions,  and  if  there 
was  any  part  they  could  not  easily  tear  away, 
they  would  cut  it  off  with  a  small  sword  which 
they  wore  in  their  belt  for  purposes  such  as 
these. 


48  THEY  WENT 

That  Greek  merchant,  Theophilus  by  name, 
had  arrived  in  time  for  supper  —  a  sulky-looking 
man  with  curled  grey  beard  that  ended  in  two 
points.  He  limped  slightly,  having  once  been 
wounded  in  the  toe,  he  explained,  during  a  little 
encounter  with  a  dragon.  Just  then  he  was  en- 
gaged, together  with  old  Lelian,  in  examining  a 
complicated  old-fashioned  buckler  embossed  with 
coral.  Presently,  replying  to  some  question  on 
the  part  of  the  armourer,  he  said : 

"Theophilus?  It  means  a  friend  of  the  All- 
Highest.  No  name  could  be  less  appropriate  for 
me.  Parents  are  queer  folks.  They  seldom  con- 
sult the  wishes  of  their  children."  He  looked 
sulkier  than  ever  as  he  spoke. 

"  He  is  right,"  thought  the  princess  who  had 
overheard  the  remark  and  who,  in  her  heart, 
had  little  affection  for  either  her  father  or 
mother. 

The  new  Christian  preacher  was  not  yet  in- 
troduced. His  ship  had  cast  anchor  after  sun- 
set, and  it  was  reported  that  he  had  suffered  con- 
siderably from  the  sea,  this  being  his  first  —  and, 
as  it  happened,  his  last  —  experience  of  ocean. 
It  led  men  to  talk  of  the  Christians  in  general, 
and  gave  Ando  an  opportunity  for  telling  a  story 
of  a  horrible  marine  monster  in  a  distant  coun- 
try, which  used  to  creep  on  shore  at  night  and 
devour  the  little  children,  till  a  Christian  con- 


THEY  WENT  49 

trived  to  sprinkle  a  few  drops  of  his  holy  water 
on  its  tail,  whereupon 

Nobody  was  greatly  interested  in  the  event. 
Ando's  stories  were  always  suited  to  the  occa- 
sion. He  had  been  told  to  "  keep  it  up  "  and 
say  kind  things  about  the  Christians,  in  order  to 
dispose  the  minds  of  the  assembly  in  favour  of 
the  new  arrival  and  forestall  possible  scenes.  .  .  . 

The  palace  was  a  dull  place,  and  austere. 
Founded  nearly  forty  years  ago  —  the  first 
structure,  indeed,  that  rose  upon  the  soil  after 
the  completion  of  the  city's  bulwarks  and  docks, 
and  one  of  the  few  which  had  not  been  rebuilt 
in  the  interval  —  it  was  now,  as  the  princess 
often  complained  to  her  father,  hopelessly  bar- 
baric and  out  of  keeping  with  the  rest  of  them. 

"  Do  let  me  make  it  habitable,''  she  would  say. 

The  parent,  dearly  as  he  loved  his  child,  and 
almost  invariably  as  he  gave  way  to  her  wishes, 
would  never  yield  to  this  particular  whim  of  hers. 
A  military  man  of  the  old  school,  he  insisted 
upon  the  simple  martial  character  of  his  dwell- 
ing. 

"  You  have  your  tower  to  play  with.  Turn  it 
into  solid  bronze,  if  you  like ;  encrust  it  with  onyx 
and  topaz.  You  are  a  young  woman  and  such 
triflings  befit  your  age  and  sex.  Now  put  your- 
self in  my  place.  I  am  an  old  fighting  man  and, 
as  some  people  think,  not  altogether  an  unsuc- 


50  THEY  WENT 

cessful  one.  I  want  my  palace  to  look  warlike. 
The  guests  must  overlook  its  little  deficiencies, 
as  you  call  them.  Your  sweet  face,  my  child,  is 
enough  to  make  anybody  overlook  anything. 
Come,  don't  you  think  this  style  of  building 
suitable?  Ask  your  mother.  We  will  abide  by 
what  she  says." 

"  Now  where  is  my  mother?  " 

The  queen,  on  such  occasions,  was  seldom  to  be 
found. 

"Only  one  storey !  "  his  daughter  would  insist. 
"  Full  of  draughts !  And  so  sombre  with  those 
stone  floors  and  bare  walls  and  miserable  pine 
torches!  We  can  hardly  see  each  other's  faces. 
Tallow  would  be  better.  Or  why  not  let  me  give 
you  some  casks  of  that  tree-oil  from  the  Mas- 
sillian  province  which  I  use  myself?  And  the 
banqueting  hall  with  its  uncomfortable  benches, 
and  all  those  skins  and  horns  and  arms  and 
trophies.  It  is  like  a  barn  for  buffaloes.  Do 
let  me  take  it  in  hand!  It  needs  silken  hang- 
ings and  warm  things  underfoot  and  copper 
panels  and  many-coloured  marbles,  and  silver 
mirrors  to  reflect  the  lights.  My  dwarfs  could 
do  the  whole  work  in  a  few  days.  You  would 
never  recognize  the  place  again." 

"  I  dislike  those  dwarfs  of  yours.  I  wish  they 
had  not  come  here.  Are  you  never  going  to  send 
them  away  ?  " 


THEY  WENT  51 

"  Why?  " 

"  Because  —  oh,  I  am  not  blaming  you,  dear 
child;  far  from  it.  Only  let  me  tell  you  —  let 
me  tell  you  that  long  ago,  twenty  years  before 
you  were  born,  while  we  were  collecting  slaves  for 
the  building  of  this  town,  we  happened  to  invade 
the  territory  of  the  Alloquisti,  those  prickly  blue 
people  who  fight  —  well,  stark  naked " 

"  Quite  right,"  interrupted  the  princess.  "  I 
like  that  spirit." 

"  So  do  I.  And  they  fought  well,  I  must  say. 
No  harm  in  praising  your  foe,  once  you  have 
vanquished  him.  How  we  battled!  And  the 
prisoners  we  took !  I  remember  —  what  were  we 
saying?  Yes;  the  dwarfs.  There,  among  the 
Alloquisti,  I  heard  queer  tales  about  your  dwarfs 
who  used  to  inhabit  that  country.  Queer  tales 
—  queer  tales." 

"  My  dear  papa,  I  know  them  all." 

So  she  did.  She  knew  as  much  about  the 
dwarfs  as  they  knew  themselves,  which  was  a 
good  deal  more  than  enough  for  most  people. 

The  only  concession  she  managed  to  wring 
from  him  was  in  the  matter  of  eating  and  drink- 
ing vessels.  One  by  one,  those  ungainly  wooden 
platters  and  goblets  of  horn  had  been  replaced, 
in  the  interests  of  civilized  guests,  by  delicate 
ware  of  gold  or  even  glass.  She  had  begun  by 
making  war  on  the  largest  of  them  all : 


52  THEY  WENT 

"  That  Auerochs-horn !  Its  silver  rim,  I  con- 
fess, is  daintly  wrought,  but  you  really  cannot 
expect  a  person  like  the  Sultan  of  Babylonia, 
who  sips  his  wine  like  a  quail,  to  drink  out  of 
such  a  tub.  The  poor  little  man  might  fall  into 
it  and  be  drowned.  And  what  would  he  then 
tell  his  people  at  home?  He  would  say  we  were 
savages.  Such  men  should  take  back  to  their 
country  a  glowing  account  of  our  wealth  and 
hospitality.  It  will  encourage  them  to  trade 
with  us.  Trade  will  bring  prosperity.  And 
prosperity,  dear  papa,  will  bring  you  credit. 
Future  ages  will  say  you  were  even  greater  in 
the  arts  of  peace  than  in  those  of  war.  We  shall 
be  more  proud  of  you  than  ever." 

The  prosperity  of  the  town  signified  pleasure 
for  the  young  lady  herself.  All  she  sought  was 
pleasure  —  a  refined  form  of  pleasure,  inter- 
spersed with  streaks  of  a  more  earthly  tinge.  So 
long  as  she  attained  that  end,  her  parents  could 
take  the  credit  for  her  enlightened  ideas. 

"  I  have  often  said  you  were  a  sensible  girl. 
That  Urushorn  and  the  rest  of  them  shall  be 
stored  in  the  cellars.  They  shall:  so  help  me, 
Belen.  Though  I  am  rather  anxious  what  your 
mother  will  say  about  it.  .  .  ." 

Meanwhile  Ando,  who  loved  to  hear  his  own 
voice,  was  still  inflicting  edifying  tales  upon  the 
company.  Every  one  knew  him  to  be  an  im- 


THEY  WENT  53 

poster;  even  the  king  knew  it;  nobody  knew  it 
better  than  himself.  It  was  his  merit,  however, 
to  prevent  the  conversation  from  flagging.  He 
talked  to  excess;  he  ate  to  excess;  to  atone  for 
these  defects  —  as  the  princess  once  remarked  — 
he  also  drank  thrice  as  much  as  anybody  else. 
Ando  was  the  last  of  his  kind.  The  king  in 
former  days  used  to  have  many  such  table-com- 
panions about  him  and  even  take  them  on  his 
warlike  expeditions,  as  other  sovereigns  of  his 
race  took  their  favourite  boys  and  girls.  One 
after  the  other  they  dropped  out  of  sight.  The 
monarch  was  now  too  old  for  such  company.  All 
he  wanted  was  peace  and  a  quiet  life,  and  his 
consort  was  not  sorry  to  see  them  go,  as  she 
could  thereby  effect  —  what  she  was  fond  of 
effecting  —  a  noteworthy  reduction  of  expenses. 
There  had  been  jesters  and  funny  men;  the  king 
declared  he  knew  all  their  jokes  beforehand,  and 
that  none  of  them  were  as  good  as  his  own.  They 
went.  There  had  been  minstrels  and  bards,  with 
harps  and  lyres  of  four  or  five  strings ;  the  king 
vowed  that  their  music  "  set  his  nerves  on  edge," 
a  speech  which  he  had  picked  up  from  his  daugh- 
ter and  which  invariably  made  the  courtiers 
laugh,  knowing,  as  they  did,  that  the  old  man 
possessed  no  nerves  worth  mentioning.  They 
went. 

"Besides,"  he  would  say,  "what  can  these 


54  THEY  WENT 

folks  sing  about?  One  grows  tired  of  hearing 
one's  own  praises.  I  made  a  couple  of  wars 
and  founded  a  city.  We  all  knew  that." 

"We  all  knew  it!" 

"  In  other  words,  I  did  my  duty  like  every- 
body else.  Dozens  of  kings  are  doing  the  same 
at  this  very  moment,  or  ought  to  be  doing  it. 
And  as  to  music  —  the  only  music  I  ever  really 
liked  was  the  trumpet  of  war."  Generally,  on 
such  occasions,  he  was  wont  to  add,  in  tones  of 
command : 

"  Bring  hither  a  trumpet,  straight  or 
curved " 

This  bringing  forth  of  the  trumpet  had  become 
almost  a  rite  at  court;  it  signified  that  the  sov- 
ereign had  reached  a  certain  stage  in  the  mat- 
ter of  tankards.  Somebody  would  forthwith 
descend  into  the  truinpetry  down  below,  a  store- 
room which  contained  trumpets  and  clarions  of 
many  shapes,  hoarse  or  shrill,  of  bronze  and  lead 
and  silver;  and  fetch  up  one  of  them. 

"  This,"  the  king  would  say,  raising  the  in- 
strument to  his  mouth,  " —  this  is  music  to  make 
the  world  tremble.  Let  us  blow  a  blast  and  see 
whether  it  sounds  the  same  as  of  old,  when  I 
used  to  summon  my  enemies  to  the  combat." 
Then  he  blew  fiercely  and  posed  the  traditional 
question : 

"  Where  is  the  enemy?  " 


THEY  WENT  55 

No  enemy  was  ever  to  be  seen. 

"  Skulking,  as  usual.  .  .  ." 

Now,  in  regard  to  those  minstrels,  his  daugh- 
ter seemed  to  be  not  quite  so  averse  to  hearing 
her  own  praises  sung.  It  was  observed,  at  all 
events,  that  several  of  the  younger  and  more 
good-looking  of  them,  those  with  pretty  curls 
and  voices  like  nightingales,  had  been  summoned 
to  her  tower  to  perform  at  some  midnight  enter- 
tainment or  other  —  observed,  too,  that  they  then 
and  there  developed  a  trick  of  disappearing. 
Nobody  paid  much  attention.  Minstrels  were 
cheap  in  the  land.  They  went. 

Ando  survived  them  all.  He  had  carefully 
studied  the  court  records ;  he  never  spoke  with- 
out turning  his  tongue  ten  times  round  in  his 
cheek;  out  of  everything  that  happened  he  man- 
aged to  extract  a  sure  prophecy  of  the  king's  long 
life  and  happiness  —  a  prophecy  which  had 
hitherto  proved  remarkably  correct.  Just  then 
he  was  replying  to  somebody  who  had  ventured 
to  disparage  the  present  age  and  talk  of  the 
"  ripe  old  times,"  in  an  unusually  sensible  man- 
ner, saying: 

"  The  ripe  old  times,  my  friend,  are  here  and 

now "  when  the  high-pitched  voice  of  Harre 

was  heard  interrupting  the  fine  speech  with  an 
unseemly  observation  about  his  own  "  ripe  old 
nose." 


56  THEY  WENT 

Everybody  disliked  this  forward  and  trouble- 
some child.  But  for  the  protection  of  the  prin- 
cess whom  they  feared,  he  would  never  have  been 
allowed  the  freedom  of  circulating  about  so  grave 
an  assembly.  He  had  now  strolled  in  among 
them,  after  spending  an  hour  or  two  in  the  vast 
kitchens,  jesting  with  the  cooks  and  teasing  the 
palace  maids. 

Ando  disliked  him  more  than  anybody  else. 
On  this  occasion  he  said  nothing,  the  lady  her- 
self being  on  the  spot.  Once,  however,  he  had 
enjoyed  a  brief  moment  of  revenge  —  only  once 
when,  in  her  abence,  Harr6  had  surreptitiously 
drawn  away  from  under  him  the  couch  on  which 
he  was  reclining,  thereby  causing -the  court 
prophet  to  roll  in  undignified  fashion  on  the 
floor.  Ando  straightway  prayed  the  king,  of- 
ficially, for  protection  against  this  "  blue  pest." 
What  was  to  be  done?  It  was  a  problem;  a 
minor  problem  but  a  ticklish  one,  the  blue  pest 
being  his  own  daughter's  favourite.  He  looked 
around  for  his  consort. 

"  Now  where  is  our  lady?  "  he  enquired. 

The  queen,  on  such  occasions,  was  seldom  to 
be  found. 

Unfortunately  for  Harr6,  that  arch-druidess 
happened  to  be  present  that  day.  Manthis  not 
only  never  told  a  lie,  but  also  feared  nobody  on 
earth. 


THEY  WENT  57 

"  We  will  talk  to  him/'  she  said. 

Manthis  had  small  use  for  boys,  or  even  men. 
In  spite  of  this,  she  was  often  heard  to  remark : 

"  I  make  a  point  of  talking  to  males  as  if  they 
were  reasonable  beings,  though  perhaps  it  is  a 
mistake.  For  they  generally  have  a  tail  where 
their  head  should  be,  and  you  may  talk,  and 
talk,  and  talk,  in  fifty  cases  out  of  fifty-one, 
without  the  slightest  hope  of  success.  Creatures 
of  impulse !  It  seems  to  me,  none  the  less,  that 
one  should  foster  what  little  self-respect  they 
have.  May  I  never  be  accused  of  partiality  in 
favour  of  my  own  sex !  " 

She  captured  Harr6  and  received,  to  all  her 
reasonable  expostulation,  nothing  save  what  she 
expected  —  a  succession  of  impudent  answers. 
It  was  then  that  the  sinewy  old  dame  laid  hands 
on  the  boy,  both  hands  as  well  as  her  sacred  and 
solid  staff  of  office,  and  therewith  gave  him  a 
terrible  beating  —  a  beating  in  comparison  with 
which  all  those  earlier  ones  of  his  childhood, 
among  the  Alloquisti,  seemed  to  merge  into  noth- 
ing; a  beating  which  hurt  all  the  more,  since  he 
happened  just  then  to  be  clad  in  rather  light 
raiment. 

"And  now,"  she  observed  to  them,  "if  you 
follow  my  advice,  you  will  deprive  him  of  food 
for  three  days.  It  works  like  magic  with  males, 
and  will  ensure  a  complete  cure." 


58  THEY  WENT 

It  was  observed  that  Harr6  for  some  time  after- 
wards insisted  upon  wearing  his  deerskin  and, 
oddly  enough,  never  sat  down  at  all,  but  remained 
standing.  He  was  too  brave  to  complain  to  his 
mistress  who  merely  said: 

""  I  have  often  told  you,  my  child,  to  be  polite 
to  the  old  lady.  Hearken  to  what  I  say !  Man- 
this  is  a  thistle.  Never  try  to  sit  on  thistles. 
Not  in  that  costume." 

The  words  seemed  to  have  sunk  into  Harre's 
mind,  for  a  few  nights  later,  when  the  court 
prophet,  well  satisfied  with  himself  and  crammed 
with  food  and  drink,  had  staggered  to  rest,  a 
hideous  din  was  heard  proceeding  from  his  cham- 
ber. They  entered  with  torches  and  found  him 
writhing  on  the  floor  in  his  thin  sleeping  gar- 
ments. His  bed  was  discovered  to  be  full  of  sea- 
urchins  which  hurt,  he  declared,  like  ten  thou- 
sand thistles. 


CHAPTEE  V 

IT  grew  late,  and  the  Christian  preacher  had 
not  yet  appeared.  Many  of  the  guests  went 
home;  others  were  doing  their  best  to  look 
cheerful,  and  wondering  whether  the  princess 
would  ever  take  her  departure  and  open  the  eve- 
ning entertainment  at  her  own  tower.  She 
stayed  on.  She  had  promised  her  mother  to  see 
the  business  through,  and  she  always  kept  such 
promises,  when  she  could.  No  body  of  any  par- 
ticular importance  was  expected  at  her  tower 
that  night.  They  could  wait.  Besides,  she  was 
rather  interested,  herself,  to  see  this  Christian. 
Would  he  be  young  and  handsome?  Or  disagree- 
ably old,  like  that  other  one  long  ago? 

The  king,  sitting  over  his  chess,  was  slightly 
fuddled  —  slightly  "  military  "  as,  for  obvious 
reasons,  they  called  it  —  but  not  more.  He  was 
never  more  than  military;  never  save  on  those 
rare  occasions  ^hen  he  began  mixing  his  words 
together  and  reaching  what  was  known  as  high- 
water  mark,  a  state  which  invariably  decided  his 
consort  to  intervene  and  have  him  put  to  bed. 
The  rule  at  every  court,  ancient  or  modern,  was 
that  nobody  might  get  drunk  before  the  king, 
and  the  difference  between  this  court  and  others 


60  THEY  WENT 

was  that  here  the  king,  however  fuddled,  how- 
ever military,  was  never  drunk.  It  was  beneath 
his  dignity.  The  citizens  were  made  to  feel  that 
they  were  under  the  rule  of  a  man  who  had  left 
his  mark,  as  a  leader  in  war  and  peace.  Had  he 
not  conquered  the  Alloquisti  and  bidden  the  town 
rise  out  of  nothing?  Therefore,  unlike  other  sov- 
ereigns, he  had  a  reputation  to  keep  up.  And 
therefore  everybody  else  was  obliged  to  remain 
sober.  And  therefore  the  court,  unlike  other 
courts,  was  rather  a  dull  place. 

He  was  an  ancient  man,  tough  as  an  oak ;  pot- 
bellied, with  hooked  nose,  white  beard  and 
watery  blue  eyes  out  of  which  he  could  still  look 
with  royal  condescension  upon  the  world.  "  It 
is  becoming  difficult,"  the  queen  once  confided  to 
Manthis,  "to  keep  him  clean.  And  yet,  O  Man- 
this,  if  you  could  hear  him  sometimes  chattering 
at  night,  you  would  not  believe  your  ears.  He 
makes  me  feel  as  if  I  were  his  great-grandmother. 
How  does  it  come  about?  " 

"  That  is  the  result  of  a  pure  life/'  replied  the 
druidess,  adding  to  herself :  "  And  now  his  brain 
waxes  soft.  He  babbles  and  grows  fond.  So  we 
fall  into  childhood  once  more!  Cases  of  this 
kind  have  been  known  even  in  our  own  sex. 
Much  might  have  been  done  with  him,  given  that 
proper  female  guidance  which  it  was  never  his 
good  fortune  to  know !  " 


THEY  WENT  61 

"  A  pure  life?  "  queried  the  queen.  "  I  am 
disposed  to  think,  rather,  that  it  is  the  result 
of  never  having  been  tormented  or  contradicted 
by  his  spouse.  I  have  allowed  him  to  keep  his 
youthful  spirits." 

A  man  who  had  done  great  things  in  his  day ! 
The  key  of  the  lock-gate,  the  visible  symbol  of  his 
power  —  it  hung  at  his  girdle ;  could  he  not  bring 
death  to  the"  city,  even  as  he  had  brought  life? 
Often  the  queen  trembled  to  think  of  what  might 
happen  if  some  enemy  should  snatch  it  from  him. 
She  had  so  far  kept  a  good  eye  on  that  key.  It 
was  one  of  the  many  preoccupations  of  her  life. 
And  a  fine  figure  of  a  monarch,  for  all  his  years ; 
never  nobler  than  during  that  afternoon  hour 
when,  his  scarlet  mantle  fluttering  in  the  breeze, 
and  followed  by  a  comely  page,  he  was  wont  to 
canter  sedately  on  a  black  stallion  along  the  sea- 
wall—  there  to  exchange  a  few  pleasant  words 
(always  the  same)  with  his  royal  consort,  who 
reclined  in  blue  robe  and  amber  beads,  intent 
upon  her  needlework  or  glancing  over  the  water 
as  it  mirrored  the  fires  of  sunset. 

Just  then  the  sovereign's  crown  was  slightly 
aslant  on  his  venerable  head.  He  had  chal- 
lenged to  a  match  of  chess  the  Greek  merchant 
Theophilus,  who  foolishly  claimed  to  possess  a 
competent  knowledge  of  the  game.  The  third 
move  was  barely  made  when,  the  advent  of  the 


62  THEY  WENT 

Christian  preacher  being  suddenly  announced, 
the  king  suspended  warlike  operation  for  the 
moment.  He  was  never  too  military  to  do  his 
duty. 

"  Welcome,  friend !  "  he  said  after  the  more 
formal  introduction  was  over.  "  All  religions 
are  free  here.  Our  lady  will  see  that  you  lack 
for  nothing  in  the  matter  of  food  and  personal 
comfort.  So  you  are  a  Christian!  That  is 
charming  of  you.  I  like  the  Christians,  what  I 
have  seen  of  them.  There  was  that  predecessor 
of  yours  —  a  good  man.  He  used  to  complain, 
I  remember,  of  our  few  resident  Christian  mer- 
chants here.  He  called  them  tepid  folk.  But, 
my  good  friend,  please  to  note  that  everything 
is  tepid  here;  the  air,  the  sea,  and  even  the 
wretched  mixture  they  put  in  my  tankard.  Fill 
it  up  again,  you  there!  Yes;  it  is  a  luke-warm- 
ish,  afternoonish  sort  of  place,  full  of  mists  and 
clouds  and  —  you  will  soon  find  out  what  I  mean 
—  that  river  of  warm  water  flowing  in  upon  our 
shores  from  the  other  side  of  the  great  ocean  — 
everything  is  moist  and  sticky  and  —  what  were 
we  saying?  Yes;  your  predecessor.  A  good 
man.  Alas,  he  perished.  It  is  a  pity  he  died. 
I  wonder  how  he  came  by  his  end?  " 

"  I  often  wondered,"  echoed  the  queen. 

"  We  wondered  very  much  indeed,"  said  sev- 
eral voices, 


THEY  WENT  63 

Manthis,  who  was  standing  by,  also  wondered 
not  why  the  missionary  had  died.  She  won- 
dered what  was  the  meaning  of  this  idle  talk. 
Manthis  loathed  makebelief  and  every  other 
form  of  untruthfulness.  This  scene,  she  con- 
cluded, had  been  arranged  beforehand  without 
consulting  her;  for  the  benefit  of  the  new  arrival, 
and  to  avoid  possible  discussions.  The  truth 
was,  nobody  wondered  in  the  least.  They  knew 
all  about  the  misunderstanding  between  the  first 
Christian  preacher,  that  unreasonable  old  man, 
and  his  enemy  Manthis. 

"  They  say  he  perished  in  a  shipwreck,"  replied 
Kenwyn,  the  new  missionary  from  Ireland. 
"  That  was  the  report  which  reached  our  shores." 

"  Ay !  Or  perhaps  he  was  captured  by  those 
pirates,  in  which  case  we  may  yet  see  him  again. 
Belen  grant  it  may  be  so!  Those  robbers  — 
would  you  believe  it?  —  they  used  to  come  slave- 
raiding  along  these  very  shores  in  the  strange 
boats  they  called  sea-dragons.  Well,  we  have 
put  an  end  to  that  scourge.  You  may  now  sail 
about  in  perfect  security.  Our  daughter,  this 
young  lady  here,  has  seen  to  that." 

The  preacher  looked  up,  and  encountered  a 
glance  from  two  green  eyes,  a  glance  that  smote 
like  lightning  and  seemed  to  pass  through  his 
veins  in  streaks  of  fire. 

"  She  is  a  good  girl.     Never  cried,  even  as  a 


64  THEY  WENT 

little  child.  She  understands  her  duty,  and 
helps  and  loves  her  old  parents.  Their  sails,  I 
think,  are  red,  and  striped  with  black;  the  sea- 
dragons,  I  mean.  Piracy  is  now  ended.  We  im- 
paled the  last  pirate  —  when  was  it?  I  forget. 
Not  very  long  ago.  It  is  a  pity  he  died !  Your 
predecessor,  I  mean." 

"  He  was  so  dreadfully  old,"  whispered  the 
princess  to  her  mother. 

"  So  is  your  dear  father.  Try  not  to  forget  it, 
my  dear  child,"  she  whispered  back,  adding 
aloud :  "  It  is  a  pity."  One  or  two  of  the  cour- 
tiers also  thought  it  a  pity.  Ando  thought  it  a 
great  pity. 

Manthis  now  opened  her  mouth  to  speak,  with- 
out even  looking  at  the  Christian.  She  said : 

"  It  is  never  a  pity  to  uproot  a  menace." 

At  these  portentous  words  the  royal  mother 
glanced  around  for  the  assistance  of  her  child, 
who  unfortunately  had  drawn  aside  and  was 
deep  in  an  argument  about  turquoises  with  some- 
body from  Bokhara.  She  still  cared  for  stones, 
though  not  so  much  as  formerly. 

"  How  are  your  dear  little  girls?  "  the  queen 
promptly  enquired  of  Manthis.  "Ah,  and  this 
is  the  new  babchick!  A  sweet  child,  in  truth. 
Prettily  she  hangs  to  your  side.  Come  hither, 
Babchick.  Don't  be  afraid.  Come  and  talk  to 
the  queen.  How  old  is  it?  " 


THEY  WENT  65 

The  maiden  looked  terribly  confused.  It  was 
her  first  appearance  in  society. 

"  Hold  your  head  up,  little  one,"  said  Manthis 
in  gentle  tones.  "  And  try  to  answer  clearly." 

"  Fourteen  years,"  replied  the  babchick  with 
the  courage  of  despair,  and  speaking  from  sheer 
trepidation  twice  as  loudly  as  was  necessary. 
"Fourteen  years  "and  —  and  five  moons  and  — 
eight  nights.  No:  nine." 

"  What  a  big  girl.  And  now  tell  me  about 
your  studies.  Let  me  see.  Do  you  know  why 
menhirs  are  upright,  or  ought  to  be?  " 

"  Because,  for  one  thing,  they  are  —  otherwise 
unavailing  —  for  their  divine  purpose." 

The  babchick  ("the  intermediary")  was  al- 
ways at  the  side  of  Manthis.  Wherever  the 
druidess  happened  to  be,  there  was  the  bab- 
chick also. 

It  was  an  admirable  institution.  The  child 
was  selected  for  her  good  qualities  and,  during 
a  certain  period  of  time,  remained  attached  to 
the  person  of  Manthis  in  public  and  in  private. 
At  the  end  of  that  period  a  new  babchick  was 
picked.  It  was  thus,  through  this  "interme- 
diary," that  the  other  children  learnt  something 
of  the  ways  of  the  world.  For  the  babchick,  and 
she  alone,  had  the  right,  and  even  the  duty,  of 
permanent  access  to  that  fountain  of  all  knowl- 
edge who  was  surrounded,  so  far  as  the  rest  of 


66  THEY  WENT 

them  were  concerned,  by  a  halo  of  authority  and 
mystery ;  the  sacred  character  of  the  druidess,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  purity  of  her  blood,  prohibit- 
ing her  from  conversing  with  her  pupils  save  on 
matters  of  pure  instruction  —  a  fairly  compre- 
hensive term,  as  she  understood  it.  She  was 
their  teacher;  of  the  other  aspects  of  her  per- 
sonality, of  Manthis  the  high  priestess  and  ar- 
bitrator and  politician  and  woman  of  the  world, 
the  babchick,  and  she  alone,  could  obtain 
glimpses.  It  was  her  privilege  to  observe  man- 
kind in  the  company  of  her  mistress,  to  question 
her  upon  any  problem  —  however  intimate,  how- 
ever remote  —  of  life  or  conduct  or  religion,  and 
to  impart  to  her  fellow-pupils  the  knowledge  and 
experience  thus  gained. 

The  system  worked  well.  It  opened  their  eyes 
and  loosened  their  tongue.  No  child  was  ad- 
mitted into  the  college  over  the  age  of  ten,  Man- 
this preferring  them  still  younger;  they  seldom 
left  before  they  were  sixteen.  Seeing  that  a 
great  many  of  the  more  promising  girls  had 
passed  in  the  course  of  time  through  the  honor- 
ary stage  of  babchick,  the  college  as  a  whole 
knew  as  much  of  the  doings  beyond  their  walls 
and  had  gained  as  much  freedom  of  conversation 
with  men  and  women  of  society  as  was  good  for 
young  people  of  their  age;  and  this,  too,  without 
incurring  any  of  the  risks  attendant  upon  a  more 


THEY  WENT  67 

promiscuous  intercourse  with  grown-up  people. 
Things  filtered  through;  even  the  tiniest  child 
had  some  notions  of  what  was  going  on,  while 
the  bigger  ones  were  thoroughly  equipped  for 
all  the  contingencies  of  that  new  worldly  life 
which  lay  before  them,  once  they  left  the  Sacred 
Rock. 

It  was  considered  the  right  thing,  whenever 
Manthis  happened  to  be  present,  to  address  a 
civil  enquiry  to  the  babchick  anent  the  state  of 
the  tide  or  suchlike,  to  offer  her  some  innocuous 
refreshment  and  otherwise  treat  her  as  if  she 
were  much  older  than  she  was.  At  one  time  in- 
deed it  was  thought  an  amusing  trick  among 
the  younger  courtiers  to  go  further  than  this  — 
in  other  words,  to  "  make  the  babchick  blush,"  a 
trick  which  occasionally  succeeded,  for  these  chil- 
dren could  not  be  expected  to  know  much  of  the 
actual  practice  of  the  world.  Though  they 
learnt,  in  a  frank  and  straightforward  manner, 
many  things  which  children  of  later  ages  were 
not  taught  at  school,  they  learnt  them,  obviously, 
only  in  theory.  Manthis  put  an  end  to  the 
scandal. 

Some  of  them  were  quick  at  picking  up  ideas 
and  became  pert  and  self-possessed  in  a  remark- 
ably brief  space  of  time ;  others  were  slower.  It 
was  observed  that,  although  the  school  con- 
tained some  uncommonly  pretty  children,  the 


68  THEY  WENT 

druidess  nearly  always  contrived  to  select  a  plain 
one  for  the  mundane  office  of  babchick.  She  did 
not  like  taking  risks.  She  watched  over  her 
pupils  like  a  lioness  over  her  cubs,  and  the  col- 
lege inmates  would  have  been  in  great  request 
as  virtuous  and  intelligent  wives,  if  the  citizens 
of  the  town  had  set  a  higher  price  than  they 
did  on  those  qualities.  The  present  babchick 
was  a  snub-nosed,  good-natured  kind  of  girl ;  not 
of  the  kind,  as  they  used  to  say,  to  "set  fire  to  the 
sea,"  but  truthful  and  willing  —  a  girl  after  the 
mistress's  own  heart.  The  only  visible  differ- 
ence between  the  babchick  and  the  others  was 
that  she,  for  the  time  being,  wore  her  hair  plaited 
and  not  open.  Hers,  too,  was  the  duty  or  priv- 
ilege of  saying  what  they  called  "  grace  "  before 
meals. 

While  the  queen  was  overcoming  the  shyness 
of  this  child  by  her  motherly  manner,  Kenwyn, 
the  new  Christian  preacher,  a  stalwart  and  hand- 
some man,  walked  boldly  up  to  Manthis,  pro- 
voked by  her  ambiguous  words.  He  knew  that 
white  robe,  that  oaken  chaplet  and  ivory  staff, 
the  richly-set  necklace  of  serpents'  eggs,  symbol 
of  eternity  which  floated  —  so  the  fond  fools 
vowed  —  against  the  current  of  the  stream ;  that 
belt  of  steely  scales.  Had  they  not  her  like  in 
Ireland  also?  Was  not  the  cult  even  then  being 
uprooted  out  of  the  land?  For  what  reason  had 


THEY  WENT  69 

the  saintly  Gwenulf  chosen  him,  a  man  of  barely 
forty,  out  of  many  wise  and  reverent  seniors,  to 
preach  repentance  to  this  god-abandoned  city  — 
for  what  reason,  save  his  earnestness  of  purpose 
and  indomitable  will?  He  had  come  here,  tak- 
ing his  life  in  his  hand.  Kenwyn  was  not  of  the 
kind  to  shirk  his  duty. 

She  stood  there,  a  grave  personage  in  snowy 
linen,  with  snowy  locks  that  drooped  in  curls 
over  her  rounded  forehead.  Her  complexion 
was  clear  and  rosy;  her  eyes  looked  serenely 
upon  the  world.  Something  untroubled  lay  in 
the  aspect  of  the  druidess  —  something  sword- 
like,  cleansing,  unequivocal;  she  stood  erect,  for 
all  her  years.  The  other  drew  near,  a  figure  in 
black;  hair  and  short  crisp  beard  like  a  raven's 
wing;  his  dusky  mantle  trailing  to  the  ground. 

There  was  no  hostility  in  her  greeting.  Far 
from  it.  She  must  have  discovered  some  reason 
to  change  her  mind,  for  she  soon  began  talking 
in  such  a  kindly  fashion  that  the  Christian  felt 
as  if  a  veil  had  been  lifted  between  them,  as  ii 
blood  were  speaking  to  blood.  Each  found  the 
other  anxious  to  do  right,  the  same  kind  of 
right;  the  external  methods,  their  opposing 
creeds,  seemed  to  be  only  the  husk,  the  outward 
shell,  of  this  strong  desire.  A  rare  sense  of  ease 
and  familiarity  crept  over  Kenwyn  during  those 
few  moments.  On  her  part,  too,  there  was  a 


70  THEY  WENT 

complete  absence  of  restraint.  How  had  it  coine 
about?  Why  should  they  converse  like  friends? 
However  far  apart  in  age  or  sex  or  race,  they 
were  comrades  in  the  spirit.  Both  thought  only 
of  betterment.  He  told  of  his  parents  in  that 
green  island  far  away;  she  listened  attentively, 
noting  with  what  deep  respect  he  spoke  of  them. 
He  had  been  a  sad  sinner  in  his  youth,  he  said, 
up  to  the  day  of  his  sudden  conversion;  now  he 
strove  to  reach  the  light.  "  One  is  always  grop- 
ing upward,"  she  agreed;  there  was  much  to  be 
amended  on  earth;  they  might  have  worked  to- 
gether to  that  end  —  she  broke  off,  with  a  tinge 
of  sorrow  in  her  voice. 

She  had  observed  him  carefully,  and  arrived 
at  a  favourable  conclusion.  He  was  different 
from  that  obnoxious  predecessor  of  his;  if  an 
enemy,  then  an  enemy  not  for  long.  For  out  of 
those  yearning  eyes  of  Kenwyn  she  had  read  his 
fate,  his  Awenn;  this  upright  and  well-inten- 
tioned creature  was  doomed,  in  the  flower  of  his 
years.  It  made  her  sad;  there  was  no  evil  in 
him.  Christian  or  otherwise,  such  men  were  the 
best  that  could  be  expected  of  their  blundering 
sex. 

Kenwyn  was  well  pleased,  not  only  with  the 
druidess,  but  with  the  whole  atmosphere  of  the 
court,  for  of  the  town  —  touching  shore,  as  he 
did,  late  at  night  —  he  had  hitherto  seen  nothing 


THEY  WENT  71 

gave  clusters  of  curious  faces  and  a  great  blaze 
of  light.  The  rude  furniture  of  this  palace,  its 
patriarchal  hospitality  and  the  sovereign's  cheery 
manner  —  they  reminded  him  of  the  halls  of 
nobles  in  his  own  land.  Then  he  thought  of  the 
glance  which  the  princess  had  given  him.  That 
glance,  too,  'called  up  memories  —  memories  of 
other  such  glances  he  had  known  in  earlier  and 
godless  days;  he  strove  to  forget  it. 

The  king,  meanwhile,  was  in  excellent  good 
humour.  He  had  beaten  Theophilus  at  chess, 
beaten  him  soundly  —  which  demonstrated  that 
the  Greek  had  either  told  a  preposterous  lie  about 
his  knowledge  of  the  game,  or  was  even  more 
of  a  courtier  than  Ando.  He  now  retired  from 
the  contest  with  well-simulated  fury,  vowing  he 
would  have  revenge  sooner  or  later. 

"  Well  then,"  said  the  king,  "  I  will  give  you 
another  beating  this  very  minute!  Ah,  no. 
Here  is  our  Irish  friend  again,  our  preacher. 
We  will  say  a  few  more  words  to  him,  and  tell 
him  a  little  something  about  ourselves  and  the 
city.  There  are  certain  matters  he  ought  to 
know." 

With  becoming  modesty  and  at  considerable 
length  he  recounted,  as  he  had  often  done  before 
in  military  mood,  some  of  his  warlike  exploits 
and  how,  lastly  and  best,  he  had  driven  the  sea 
out,  far  away,  with  that  huge  embankment. 


72  THEY  WENT 

"  He  was  the  toughest  enemy  of  all  of  them," 
he  concluded.  "  But  now  he  moans  at  our  gate. 
Hark!" 

The  waves  were  heard,  beating  against  the 
stony  rampart  of  the  town. 

"  The  old  people  used  to  say,"  added  the  queen, 
desirous  to  take  her  share  in  the  conversation 
and  make  the  newcomer  feel  thoroughly  at  home, 
" —  the  old  people  used  to  say,  when  the  waves 
came  rushing  over  this  land,  that  they  were  the 
white  horses  of  Aithryn.  Simple  folks!  They 
held  Aithryn  to  be  some  sea-king,  or  what  not." 

"  Why,  so  he  is,"  replied  the  preacher.  "  A 
sea-king  in  the  North.  His  ancestors  have  made 
many  raids  on  our  shores.  I  have  never  seen 
him.  A  fine  man,  they  say,  with  red  beard  and 
hair  which  he  calls  golden.  He  sails  in  a  boat 
painted  green  and  shaped  like  a  bird." 

"  Sultry  this  evening,"  the  queen  suddenly  re- 
marked to  Manthis.  "  Stifling !  I  feel  some- 
what faint." 

"  It  struck  me  as  unusually  cold  for  the  sea- 
son. But  perhaps  these  linen  garments,  and 
your  draughty  halls " 

Nobody,  fortunately,  had  observed  the  queen's 
confusion  when  she  heard  about  Aithryn,  not 
even  her  daughter,  who  was  still  discussing 
jewellery  with  that  good-looking  stranger.  Now 
at  last  she  knew  the  truth  of  the  wonderful  vis- 


THEY  WENT  73 

itor,  though  she  knew  him  not  for  an  enemy. 
What  if  he  should  return? 

Ando  was  seen  to  hold  up  his  two  hands,  as 
he  always  did  when  about  to  make  some  deep 
pronouncement.  He  said: 

"Make  no  friend  of  a  red-haired  man!  It  is 
one  of  our  oldest  druidical  sayings.  Am  I  not 
right,  my  good  Mother  Man  this?  " 

"You  are,"  she  replied  rather  snappily. 
"  These  simple  speeches  are  worthy  to  be  pon- 
dered. I  will  tell  you  another  of  them.  Truth 
is  the  eldest  daughter  of  God.3' 

This  was  a  hit  at  the  court-prophet,  who  at 
once  retorted,  hinting  at  the  well-known  abstemi- 
ousness of  Manthis: 

"  I  will  tell  you  yet  another,  which  is  also  not 
unworthy  of  note  in  these  days  when  the  land  is 
full  of  hypocrisy  and  when  many  folks  pretend 
to  be  better  than  they  are,  or  need  be,  or  even 
should  be.  Wine  mingled  with  water  is  poison/' 

"  That  is  not  a  druidical  saying,"  she  replied, 
"though  I  grant  it  is  as  old  as  any  of  ours.  Sad 
to  think  what  drunkards  our  ancestors  were! 
Sadder  still  to  realize  that  their  few  faults  are 
flourishing  to  this  hour,  while  their  many  virtues 
have  been  forgotten." 

The  preacher  continued : 

"  This  Aithryn,  they  say,  is  a  good  man,  but 
somewhat  envious." 


74  THEY  WENT 

Theophilus  was  the  only  person  present  who 
had  any  acquaintance  with  the  Aithryn  of  flesh 
and  blood.  He  said  nothing  of  that,  but  merely 
remarked : 

"  The  envy  of  good  men  has  ever  made  this 
world  a  bad  place  to  inhabit.  Your  good  man 
sticks  at  nothing.  He  is  a  jest  on  the  part  of 
the  gods;  their  only  jest,  and  a  poor  one." 

"  That  sounds  delightful !  "  cried  the  king. 
"  You  must  explain  it  to  me,  one  of  these  days. 
And  now,  my  Irish  friend,  can  you  play  chess? 
Theophilus  shall  have  his  revenge  afterwards." 

"  Midnight  is  past,"  interposed  his  consort, 
making  heroic  efforts  to  overcome  her  agitation. 
"  Our  honourable  guest  is  doubtless  weary  after 
his  long  buffeting  on  that  dreadful  sea " 

"  Can  you?  "  persisted  the  monarch.  "  Can 
you?  Fill  up  my  tankard,  you  there!  Can 
you?" 

"  It  seems  to  be  a  kind  of  game,"  replied  Ken- 
wyn,  surveying  the  board  in  a  bewildered  fash- 
ion. "  No.  I  have  never  seen  it." 

"  Then  I  will  teach  you,"  said  the  monarch, 
and  several  of  the  onlookers  were  seen  to  wink 
at  each  other.  "  Come !  This  one,  for  instance, 
is  called  a  horseman.  He  moves  —  look!  like 
this.  Oh,  it  is  wonderful  sport,  and  you  will 
learn  it  quickly.  You  are  a  young  man.  As  for 
myself,  I  sometimes  think  I  began  almost  too 


THEY  WENT  75 

late,  though  you  saw  the  victory  I  gained  just 
now,  did  you  not?  One  cannot  do  everything. 
All  my  life,  for  the  rest,  has  been  a  kind  of  chess, 
particularly  with  that  Aithryn  of  yours  out  yon- 
der. Strange  that  he  should  be  a  living  man. 
We  never  heard  him  mentioned  as  such,  and  he 
never  approached  these  shores.  Perhaps  he  will, 
some  day.  Let  him  come !  This  key  —  I  will 
tell  you  about  it  tomorrow.  Best  assured,  mean- 
while, that  your  Aithryn  is  harmless;  check- 
mated, I  should  say.  And  here  is  the  Vizier;  he 
moves  in  two  ways ;  he  has  all  the  hard  work  to 
do;  he  must  defend  his  king,  you  understand. 
And  this  is  the  Fool.  .  .  ." 

"  I  am  glad  it  is  over,"  said  the  queen  to  her 
daughter,  when  they  were  alone.  She  had  re- 
covered her  composure.  "  The  Christian  seems 
better  than  the  last." 

"  I  think  so  too.  Manthis  tells  me  she  likes 
him." 

"  How  surprising !  And  how  relieved  I  am, 
for  Manthis  would  never  say  what  she  does  not 
think.  I  was  afraid  at  one  moment  of  a  little 
commotion,  which  would  have  been  bad  for  your 
dear  father.  Be  sure,  my  child,  to  take  the  Irish- 
man round  the  town  tomorrow.  That  Greek  can 
look  after  himself;  I  dislike  his  face." 

The  duty  of  showing  the  sights  of  the  place  to 
distinguished  guests  often  devolved  upon  the 


76  THEY  WENT 

princess,  who  was  not  averse  to  it,  provided  they 
were  neither  old  nor  ugly. 

"  I  don't  mind,"  she  said,  after  a  short  reflec- 
tion. "  He  is  passable." 

"  And  say  kind  things  to  him." 

"  Have  you  ever  known  me  say  anything  else?  " 

"  Only  once  or  twice,  in  all  these  years.  You 
are  a  sensible  girl,  as  a  rule.  Show  him  the 
animals.  And  don't  forget  the  unicorn  family. 
I  doubt  whether  he  has  ever  seen  a  unicorn." 

"  The  unicorns  have  just  had  a  new  baby,"  ob- 
served the  princess. 

"  Let  us  hope  they  are  taking  proper  care  of 
it  this  time.  Young  things  should  be  warmly 
wrapped  up,  and  old  things  too.  And  now  try 
to  get  your  father  to  bed.  I  wish  that  horrid 
game  had  never  been  invented.  It  makes  him 
kick  all  night  in  his  sleep." 

"  That  is  not  chess,  mother.  That  is  the 
tankard.  Too  much  tankard.  Too  military," 
declared  the  princess,  who  had  little  tolerance 
for  failings  other  than  her  own. 

"  May  you  never  have  a  worse  husband,  my 
child." 

"  I  shall  never  have  one  at  all." 

"  A  caprice !  I  wish  you  would  learn  to  think 
like  the  rest  of  the  world.  Everybody  gets  mar- 
ried sooner  or  later.  Ask  your  father." 

"  When  he  is  sober." 


THEY  WENT  77 

"  Do  try  to  speak  more  kindly  of  him.  Think 
of  his  white  hairs!  Wait  till  you  are  eighty- 
three  !  You  should  have  heard  him  talking  last 
night.  Like  a  boy  of  your  age." 

"  That  is  the  tankard." 

"  Oh,  hush,  dear !  Tankard  or  no,  he  is  a  won- 
derful old  man." 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  mellow  light  of  afternoon  was  flood- 
ing the  streets.     They  had  strolled  for 
a  time  beyond  the  city  wall  to  view  the 
potteries,  cucumber  gardens  and  dwarfs'  settle- 
ment; now,  returned  to  the  centre  of  the  town, 
the  princess  was  saying : 

"And  what  think  you,  Kenwyn,  of  our  har- 
bour? » 

It  lay  there,  oval  in  shape.  Countless  craft 
were  moored  to  its  side,  ships  of  every  build  — 
shallow  river  vessels,  coast  traders  and  others 
from  foreign  lands  far  away.  All  was  bustle  and 
confusion  on  that  smooth  expanse;  rowing  boats 
plied  hither  and  thither,  sailors  were  gesticulat- 
ing and  calling  to  each  other  in  many  tongues, 
while  flocks  of  snowy  sea-gulls  hovered  overhead 
or  plunged  with  wild  cries  into  the  water  when 
some  piece  of  garbage  was  thrown  overboard. 

"  I  have  never  seen  its  like,"  replied  the 
preacher.  "  How  strangely  shaped.  Like  an 
egg." 

"  True.  And  the  streets,  you  see,  converge 
here.  The  whole  town  has  this  shape,  more  or 
less.  A  Roman  built  it." 

"  The  king  told  me  yesterday  that  he  him- 
self   " 

78 


THEY  WENT  79 

"  This  Roman,  you  understand,  worked  under 
his  direction." 

Not  without  a  terrible  wrench  had  Ormidius 
Limpidus  departed  from  his  own  tradition  of  a 
square  settlement  with  its  four  gateways.  He 
perpetrated  this  outrage  on  his  feelings,  artistic 
and  patriotic,  in  order  to  conciliate  the  druidess 
who  even  then,  young  as  she  was,  possessed  an 
all-powerful  influence  at  court.  He  felt  the  need 
of  an  ally  in  case  the  king  should  lose  his  temper 
seriously  and  do  him  to  death  in  a  fit  of  impa- 
tience at  the  slowness  of  his  work.  Manthis,  he 
thought,  might  be  able  to  avert  such  a  catas- 
trophe. One  day  she  had  given  him  to  under- 
stand, in  veiled  language,  that  she  had  a  passion- 
ate cult  of  the  egg-principle.  The  shape  of  the 
harbour,  of  the  town,  was  an  insidious  piece  of 
flattery  on  the  part  of  the  engineer  who  had  a 
passionate  cult  of  his  own  skin,  and  of  his  hun- 
dred female  slaves. 

"A  Roman,  you  say?  That  explains  the 
solidity  of  everything.  We  have  heard  much  of 
the  Romans." 

"  Solid  indeed,"  she  replied.  "  Our  court 
prophet  says  that  granite  endures.  He  means 
that  these  walls  and  docks  will  last  for  all 
time." 

"  Nothing  endures  for  ever  save  the  All-High- 
est alone." 


80  THEY  WENT 

"  Keally?  Then  Ando  must  be  mistaken.  I 
often  tell  my  father  that  he  is  no  longer  fit  for 
his  business.  He  drinks  too  much.  Only  think ! 
We  have  this  fair  mountain  water,  brought  hither 
by  the  aqueduct  you  saw.  I  have  drunk  nothing 
else  all  my  life.  Ando  refuses  to  touch  it.  He 
says :  '  What  injures  my  sandals  cannot  fail  to 
injure  my  stomach.'  He  is  also  too  old.  Our 
court  is  full  of  musty,  moth-eaten  people.  I  am 
glad  you  are  young  and  strong  and  altogether 
different  from  that  predecessor  of  yours,"  she 
added  with  a  smile.  "  Come !  We  will  look  at 
some  of  these  warehouses." 

In  those  immense  vaulted  chambers,  dimly 
lighted,  the  air  was  heavy  with  the  scent  of 
spice.  Sacks  of  foreign  merchandise  lay  about 
—  ostrich  feathers,  cinnamon,  cloves,  pepper, 
dried  fruits,  bitumen,  gums  and  resins;  casks 
of  wine  from  Italy  or  the  Levant ;  bales  of  cotton 
cloth  from  Turkestan,  carpets,  embroidered 
silks  from  distant  Cathay.  There  were  sheds 
full  of  porphyry  and  marble  slabs  of  many  kinds, 
and  metals  from  the  interior,  and  rare  woods  for 
inlaying.  Alongside,  Kenwyn  noticed  the  tav- 
erns where  sailormen  gambled  over  their  cups, 
some  rank  with  saffron  and  garlic  and  assafoe- 
tida  and  such  seasoning  as  Orientals  love,  others 
where  Europeans  could  devour  the  fare  of  their 
own  country  —  oysters  from  the  neighbouring 


THEY  WENT  81 

beds,  and  ducks,  and  hams,  and  red  cheeses  and 
radishes  and  liver  sausages  and  savoury  ragouts 
of  game  or  fish.  Low  dancing  saloons  were  at- 
tached thereto,  brothels,  adapted  to  every  taste, 
steaming  vapour-baths  full  of  ribald  song  and 
laughter  —  haunts  of  debauchery. 

The  preacher,  observing  these  things,  shook  his 
head. 

"  You  should  see  my  town  by  night,"  remarked 
the  princess. 

"  I  hope  I  never  may,"  he  replied.  During 
this  brief  walk  he  had  been  growing  ever  more 
taciturn.  He  was  unpleasantly  affected  with  the 
exuberance  of  the  place. 

"  Why  not?  "  she  enquired.  "  Are  you  afraid 
of  pleasure?  " 

They  had  left  the  water-side  and  were  now 
moving  along  one  of  those  broad  thoroughfares 
lined  with  the  palaces  of  the  richer  merchants. 
These  men  lived  in  their  upper  stories.  The 
lower  floors  were  dedicated  to  work,  and  utilized 
as  ateliers  and  showrooms  where  visitors  could 
inspect  their  wares  and  make  purchases. 

"  Travellers  have  told  me,"  said  the  princess, 
"  that  there  are  things  here  such  as  you  will  find 
in  no  other  Western  city." 

They  entered  several  of  these  buildings  to  ob- 
serve how  they  manipulated  the  leather,  burning 
it  into  fair  patterns  and  staining  it  to  cobalt  blue 


82  THEY  WENT 

and  other  shades.  They  saw  the  workers  in 
enamel,  the  dyers,  gem-cutters  and  lapidaries, 
magicians,  druggists,  embroiderers,  and  those 
who  blew  glass  into  wondrous  designs  and  col- 
ours, while  the  brittle  mass  flowed  like  water  un- 
der their  touch.  A  whole  street  was  dedicated 
to  perfumers,  sickly  men,  contriving  unguents 
and  cosmetics  with  essences  from  many  lands. 

"Favourites  of  mine,"  said  the  princess.'' 
"  They  distil  odours  of  violet  or  quince  or  myrrh 
or  fenugreek  or  lilies  —  anything  you  please! 
Syrian  roses,  or  from  Cyprus  or  Campania! 
And  here  are  other  favourites,"  she  went  on, 
leading  him  towards  the  goldsmiths  and  jewel- 
lers who  vied  with  one  another  in  fashioning 
rings  and  pendants  of  precious  metal  and  en- 
crusting them  with  stones.  Groups  of  Jews  clus- 
tered about  the  pavement,  discussing  the  market 
and  appraising  some  pearl  or  other  rarity  ar- 
rived from  over  the  sea. 

"  Men  of  the  East  —  how  they  love  handling 
gems!  And  to  reflect  that  up  to  a  few  years 
ago  this  town  had  never  seen  any  save  our  own 
lustreless  river-pearls  and  jade  and  coral  and 
trash  of  that  kind !  They  wore  beads  of  glass  or 
copper  armlets.  My  father  actually  forbade  his 
people,  at  first,  to  import  gold.  Well,  we  have 
changed  our  minds  since  then.  I  also  used  to 
play  with  chrysolite  and  what  not.  Now  my 


THEY  WENT  83 

fancy  has  grown  bolder.  I  frolic  with  the 
streets."  She  looked  up  at  the  structures  fac- 
ing them,  and  continued : 

"  If  only  that  paint  on  the  house  fronts  were 
not  always  being  effaced  by  the  moist  sea  air. 
It  looks  disorderly.  All  the  year  round  it  has  to 
be  renewed.  What  shall  be  done  about  it?  Let 
us  have  your  advice,  Kenwyn." 

The  preacher  glanced  upwards,  in  a  wonder- 
ing fashion. 

"  I  know  nothing  of  painting,"  he  said.  "  I 
never  noticed  it.  Why  paint  the  houses  at  all? 
The  stone  underneath  would  be  good  enough 
for  me." 

"  Not  for  me." 

The  quays,  the  sea  .wall  and  harbour,  still  bore 
the  massive  imprint  of  Ormidius  Limpidus. 
Otherwise  not  much  of  the  original  austerity  of 
the  town  could  be  detected  in  its  external  appear- 
ance. Those  grey  granite  walls,  though  they  had 
begun  to  brighten  themselves  naturally  with  a 
sulphur-tinted  lichen,  were  too  gloomy  for  the 
princess.  She  had  covered  them  with  tiles  or 
marble  or  plaster  —  plaster  which  was  painted 
either  in  one  hue  or  else  enlivened  with  barbaric 
scenes  of  hunting  and  feasting  and  slaughter; 
all  of  which,  to  the  great  annoyance  of  the  young 
lady,  had  to  be  repaired  from  time  to  time  on 
account  of  the  rain  and  salt  sea  air  which  gnawed 


84  THEY  WENT 

away  the  colours.  She  had  erected  arches  and 
colonnades;  cheery  copper,  the  work  of  the 
dwarfs,  gleamed  at  the  gateways  and  house  en- 
trances ;  parterres  of  flowers  and  bold  shop  signs 
diversified  the  roadways,  and  at  nearly  every 
street-corner  stood  a  turret  encased  in  polished 
brass  and  bearing,  at  night,  a  monstrous  torch 
whose  beams,  caught  by  the  overhanging  mists, 
flared  over  the  city  like  a  lurid  mantle,  visible  far 
out  at  sea. 

"  I  thought  much  of  these  colonnades,"  she 
was  saying,  "  when  first  they  were  built.  Now 
I  find  them  clumsy." 

"  You  must  be  hard  to  please." 

She  smiled. 

"  Sometimes,  my  good  Kenwyn.  Only  some- 
times." 

He  wondered  what  she  meant  by  those  words. 

It  was  a  democratic  mart,  an  emporium  and 
outpost  of  civilization;  a  gaudy  place  inhabited 
by  folks  of  the  same  kind  —  exiled  rulers  and 
generals,  high-class  reprobates,  merchants,  en- 
riched slaves,  artizans  of  uncommon  capacity 
who,  for  some  reason  or  other,  had  been  obliged 
to  leave  their  homes.  Folks  who  had  money 
to  spend!  They  flocked  hither  from  every  part 
of  the  world,  assured  of  the  protection  and  en- 
couragement of  the  princess.  No  questions  were 
asked  how  he  or  she  lived.  No  one  was  discour- 


THEY  WENT  85 

aged  from  settling  in  this  town,  whose  reputation 
for  vice  was  such  that  lovers  of  pleasure  had 
been  known  to  desert  even  their  Mediterranean 
capitals  for  the  sake  of  the  peculiar  attractions 
which  they  found  here.  An  air  of  good  humour 
pervaded  those  thronged  streets.  You  could  see 
horsemen  from  the  neighbouring  hill-country, 
wrapped  in  gaily-striped  plaids,  lazy  Orientals 
carried  about  by  their  slaves,  women  of  many 
kinds,  apparelled  in  flashing  silks,  with  scarlet 
slippers  and  gilt  parasols,  moving  freely  among 
the  rest  —  too  freely,  Kenwyn  was  disposed  to 
think.  And  this  town,  he  reflected,  would  have 
remained  a  mere  unloading-place  for  a  few  dozen 
ships  but  for  the  initiative  of  the  lady  walking  at 
his  side,  who  fostered  its  strange  growth  and 
gave  it  the  impress  of  her  own  mind. 

An  impress  altogether  unfamiliar  to  him. 
This  thriving  trade  and  luxury  —  he  contrasted 
it  with  the  green  calm  of  Ireland.  It  was  as  if 
one  of  those  rank  and  glittering  tales  of  the 
East,  which  occasionally  reached  his  shores,  had 
sprung  into  life  at  this  spot.  There  would  be 
much  ploughing  and  uprooting  of  weeds  to  be 
done  here  before  the  good  'seed  could  be  sown. 
None  the  less,  he  was  constrained  to  observe : 

"  I  see  no  beggars." 

"  That  is  what  your  predecessor  used  to  say. 
There  are  no  beggars  here.  We  send  objection- 


86  THEY  WENT 

able  folk  to  work  at  the  mines,  or  throw  them 
into  the  Great  Drain.  We  have  many  thousand 
labourers  in  the  mines  at  this  moment.  I  am 
still  rather  fond  of  metals,  though  the  dwarfs,  I 
must  say,  are  beginning  to  set  my  nerves  on 
edge." 

Kenwyn  remarked  gravely: 

"  Those  dwarfs,  my  lady,  are  unbaptized  and 
unredeemed.  They  are  held  to  be  lost  souls,  by 
our  Church.  I  wish  I  had  never  set  eyes  on 
them.  If  I  could  but  persuade  you  to  drive  them 
back  into  their  wilderness!  And  where,  by  the 
way,  are  your  temples?  I  see  none." 

"  That  is  what  your  predecessor  used  to  say. 
There  are  no  temples  here.  That  horrid  old  man 
wished  to  keep  us  poor,  in  order  that  we  might 
build  temples  and  pray  inside  them.  But  our 
folks  are  not  poor;  they  are  happy.  No  happy 
man  ever  prays.  Why  should  he?  There  is 
much  misery,  they  tell  me,  in  Borne  and  Byzance ; 
and  many  temples.  Perhaps  the  All-Highest 
creates  poor  men  in  order  to  be  able  to  do  some- 
thing for  them,  since  he  can  do  nothing  for  the 
happy  ones.  Or  perhaps  they  create  him  in 
order  to  be  able  to  ask  him  for  something.  They 
seem  to  hang  on  one  another;  it  must  be  an  un- 
pleasant state  of  affairs.  ...  I,  too,  would  like 
to  visit  Rome  and  Byzance.  What  would  my  old 
parents  do  without  me?  One  must  think  of  one's 


THEY  WENT  87 

parents,  Kenwyn.     I  dislike  the  thought  of  leav- 
ing them." 

The  princess  disliked  the  thought  of  leaving 
her  city 

Eipe  and  rotten,  said  Kenwyn  to  himself.  It 
reeked  of  foulness;  it  seemed  to  have  sprung  up 
like  a  fungus  in  the  night,  ready  to  crumble  into 
putrefaction.  The  devil  might  well  look  with  an 
auspicious  eye  upon  its  unhealthy  flowering. 

"  Perhaps  the  devil  dwells  here,"  he  ventured. 

"  That  is  what  your  predecessor  used  to  say. 
And  we  told  him  that  the  devil,  obviously,  knows 
what  is  good.  I  think,  Kenwyn,  he  is  not  as  red 
as  he  is  painted,  though  I  have  never  seen  him. 
Have  you?  Sometimes  I  wish  he  would  dwell 
here.  He  is  a  fine  architect,  they  say,  and  there 
are  many  little  things  I  would  like  to  ask  him," 
she  added  almost  wistfully. 

Once  or  twice  already,  when  disappointed  with 
her  own  efforts  or  with  what  she  called  the  in- 
creasing stupidity  of  her  assistants,  she  had  been 
on  the  point  of  summoning  the  devil  to  her  aid. 
Hitherto  she  had  refrained.  She  was  afraid  of 
passing  under  his  power  and  losing  that  sense 
of  independence  which  she  cherished  more  than 
all  else  on  earth.  Yet  often  she  longed  for  his 
counsel  —  how  often ! 

For  she  was  never  wholly  satisfied,  her  pas- 
sion for  ornament  having  no  fixed  models.  Her 


88  THEY  WENT 

own  tastes  were  changing  all  the  time;  changing 
and  expanding;  she  forgot  her  earlier  ideas  as 
soon  as  they  were  executed,  and  straightway 
went  on  to  something  new  and  better.  The  re- 
sults, wonderful  as  they  were,  never  quite  came 
up  to  expectation.  Her  parents,  meanwhile, 
watched  her  doings  in  loving  but  anxious  be- 
wilderment, like  two  sparrows  that  have  hatched 
a  cuckoo.  One  side  of  her  genial  nature  was  so 
far  hidden  from  them;  they  were  sufficiently  puz- 
zled by  what  they  saw  of  the  other,  and  her  fa- 
ther, more  particularly,  often  marvelled  whence 
she  derived  that  imperious  will,  that  restless 
longing  to  mould  and  fashion  anew.  He  con- 
cluded that  they  were  qualities  of  his  own,  which 
the  incidents  of  a  busy  military  life  had  never 
allowed  him  to  develop  to  their  full  extent.  For 
the  city  was  her  creation;  its  pride  had  grown 
with  hers,  and  now  there  was  no  end  to  either. 

All  for  the  sake  of  pleasure,  she  told  the 
troubled  Kenwyn;  pleasure  that  relaxes  the 
mind ;  pleasure  —  an  end  in  itself,  and  the 
worthiest  occuption  for  freeborn  folk.  And  she 
laughed,  happy  so  long  as  she  could  work  her 
will  upon  men  and  things. 

Pleasure.  .  .  .  He  was  inclined  to  call  it  by 
another  name.  She  seemed  to  have  instincts  dif- 
ferent from  those  of  most  women. 

"  I  remember  now !  "  she  suddenly  said.     "  We 


THEY  WENT  89 

have  a  temple  here,  and  you  shall  see  it.  But 
why  look  into  my  eyes  so  strangely?  Is  there 
anything  amiss?  " 

"  Naught  is  amiss." 

"  Are  they  not  to  your  taste?  " 

"  They  are  greatly  to  my  taste,"  he  replied. 
Then  he  bit  his  lips.  The  words  had  slipped 
out,  he  knew  not  how.  What  made  him  utter 
them? 

"  So  come,"  she  said,  and  laid  a  warm  little 
hand  lightly  on  his  wrist.  There  it  remained, 
awhile. 

She  led  him  through  one  of  the  narrowest 
streets  of  the  town  into  a  wide,  old-fashioned 
court-yard  paved  with  cobbles  and  surrounded 
by  tall  buildings. 

Here,  leaning  against  one  side  of  the  enclosure, 
stood  a  small  shed  of  stones,  all  awry. 

"  This  is  the  temple ;  the  temple  of  your  prede- 
cessor." 

"  A  Christian  temple?  " 

"  He  begged  Ormidius  Limpidus  to  construct 
him  a  fitting  place  for  worship.  The  wretch  took 
his  money  for  drawing  up  the  plans  and  then, 
after  talking  it  over  with  Manthis,  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  he  was  too  old  to  begin  building 
Christian  churches  at  his  time  of  life.  So  he 
reared  this  shed  with  his  own  hands,  and  called 
it  a  humble  beginning." 


90  THEY  WENT 

"  A  humble  beginning.     Such  it  is !  " 

"And  such  it  remained." 

"  Did  he  make  many  converts?  "  enquired  the 
preacher.  "  Pray  tell  me  something  about  him." 

"  Folks  listened  at  first  out  of  curiosity.  Then 
they  grew  weary  of  his  words  and  dropped  off 
again.  He  told  them  to  repent,  which  they  could 
not  do,  seeing  that  they  had  no  reason  for  re- 
penting. He  promised  them  good  things  after 
death,  which  they  did  not  want,  seeing  that  they 
wanted  them  during  life.  Only  one  low  woman 
remained  always  true  to  his  teaching.  Some 
sailors  had  brought  her  from  the  provinces;  she 
was  neither  young,  nor  fair  to  see,  nor  in  particu- 
larly good  health.  Day  after  day  she  sat  in  this 
shed  and  hearkened  while  he  discoursed,  and 
after  his  death  she  went  there  for  three  more 
days,  waiting  for  him ;  he  had  told  her,  she  said, 
that  he  would  return  on  the  third.  Perhaps  she 
misinterpreted  some  part  of  his  doctrine.  As 
he  never  came  again,  she  went  home  and  cried 
awhile;  then  took  to  her  old  life  once  more,  say- 
ing that  it  mattered  little  what  any  woman  be- 
lieved so  long  as  she  supported  herself  by  honest 
work.  You  can  still  see  her  hobbling  about  the 
harbour  on  clear  nights." 

"  One  convert !  "  said  Kenwyn  sadly.  "  And 
how  did  he  really  come  by  his  end?  " 

"  I     wonder !    Everybody     wondered.     There 


THEY  WENT  91 

was  certainly  a  little  misunderstanding.  He 
was  such  a  violent  creature,  always  spitting  and 
scratching  like  a  wild  cat.  That  reminds  me,  my 
good  friend!  You  are  to  see  the  garden  of  the 
beasts.  My  mother  asked  me  to  show  you  the 
unicorn  family,  and  I  always  obey  my  mother. 
Is  it  not  right  to  obey  your  parents?  Besides, 
this  park  is  one  of  the  sights  of  the  town.  All 
our  visitors  are  taken  to  see  it." 

Kenwyn  persisted : 

"  Tell  me,  as  we  go  along,  something  about 
that  misunderstanding ;  how  it  began  and  ended.' 
And  also  about  his  death,  if  you  know  anything. 
The  Pope  of  Rome  sent  us  word  to  say,  not  long 
ago,  that  he  had  perished  in  a  shipwreck." 

"  I  do  not  think  the  Pope  of  Rome  knows  much 
of  what  happens  here.  He  must  be  a  funny  old 
man,  though  I  have  never  seen  him.  Have  you? 
Does  he  really  wear  a  ring  in  his  nose,  in  order 
to  dream  more  pleasantly?  " 

"  I  think  not,"  said  Kenwyn. 

They  went. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  Pope  of  Eome  knew  a  good  deal 
about  the  town  —  more  than  he  need 
have  known,  though  perhaps  not  every- 
thing; more,  at  all  events,  than  was  altogether 
to  his  liking.  So  did  he  of  Byzance.  They  never 
spoke  of  the  place  save  in  a  hushed  whisper;  they 
called  it  "  the  city  of  the  plain,"  or  Sodom,  or 
Gomorrah,  or  sometimes  both;  and  there  still 
exists  a  brief  correspondence  between  the  two  re- 
garding the  desirability  of  dispatching  a  mission- 
ary to  the  spot  in  order  to  reclaim  it  from  druid- 
ism  and  vice. 

He  of  Byzance  surmised  that  the  good  work 
was  incumbent  upon  Rome.  "  The  distance  from 
Rome  being  shorter/'  he  urged,  "  the  task  of  send- 
ing a  preacher  would  therefore  be  easier." 

He  of  Rome  replied  that  his  brother-pontiff 
should  undertake  the  business.  "  The  distance 
from  Byzance  being  longer,"  he  argued,  "  the 
merit  of  sending  a  preacher  would  therefore  be 
greater." 

Both  agreed,  meanwhile,  that  no  city  could 
have  risen  to  such  opulence  without  the  help  of 
the  devil,  forgetful  of  the  fact  that  their  own 


THEY  WENT  93 

capitals  left  nothing  to  be  desired  on  the  score 
of  luxury.  Be  that  as  it  may,  they  were  mis- 
taken. For  the  devil  had  hitherto  taken  no  in- 
terest whatever  in  its  growth,  and  for  the  simple 
reason  that  his  antagonist,  the  Christ,  had  taken 
no  interest  either.  Perhaps  they  confused  his 
craftsmanship  with  that  of  the  dwarfs  who,  hum- 
ble mountain-folk  as  they  were,  certainly  pro- 
duced a  few  things  (notably  mirrors)  which,  in 
point  of  sheer  artistry,  were  held  by  some  of  the 
simpler  to  be  almost  beyond  human  contriving. 

In  the  end,  neither  of  these  sluggish,  worldly 
dignitaries  moved  a  finger.  After  a  few  more 
mutual  recriminations,  they  agreed  to  leave  the 
place  "to  the  judgment  of  the  All-Highest," — 
a  decision  which  was  afterwards  acclaimed,  and 
justly  acclaimed,  as  a  sign  of  prophetic  intuition 
on  their  part.  For  the  All-Highest  not  only  had 
a  reputation  to  preserve  like  everybody  else,  but, 
unlike  many  others,  a  knack  of  invariably  pre- 
serving it.  ... 

Gwenulf,  that  saintly  man  who,  although  not 
an  Irishman  himself,  was  then  at  the  head  of  the 
Irish  Church  —  Gwenulf  thought  differently 
from  these  two  pontiffs.  He  was  made  of  spir- 
itual stuff.  Inflamed  with  holy  zeal  for  the 
propagation  of  the  true  faith,  he  had  already 
dispatched  many  missionaries  among  the  heathen 
of  the  mainland ;  now,  on  hearing  of  the  sad  state 


94  THEY  WENT 

of  this  town,  he  lost  no  time  in  sending  hither 
that  first  Christian  preacher  of  his. 

He  came. 

Nothing  would  have  been  easier  for  the 
stranger  than  to  have  remained  on  friendly 
terms  with  the  court,  with  Manthis  and  all  the 
citizens  of  the  town.  It  was  such  a  jovial  and 
democratic  place ;  they  only  desired  to  be  allowed 
to  live  in  peace  —  peace  at  any  price !  On  his 
arrival  everybody  wished  him  well.  He  was 
treated  as  a  distinguished  guest  by  the  king,  and 
although  the  little  princess  frankly  confided  to 
him  that  he  was  a  great  deal  too  old  for  her 
taste,  the  queen  made  ample  amends  for  this 
childish  indiscretion  by  smothering  him  in  com- 
forts and  cookery.  He  was  encouraged  to  come 
and  go  as  he  pleased  and  to  preach  to  his  heart's 
content ;  he  might  be  preaching  to  this  very  hour, 
had  he  cared  to  follow  the  advice  of  Ando,  who 
gave  him  his  own  mysterious  and  infallible  recipe 
for  behaviour  at  court : 

"  Be  pleasant  to  everybody,  and  everybody  will 
take  you  to  be  pleasant.  And  if  you  can  be  rea- 
sonable at  the  same  time  —  why,  so  much  the  bet- 
ter." 

He  failed  to  be  either  pleasant  or  reasonable. 
Manthis,  in  particular,  found  frequent  cause  to 
complain  of  his  bad  manners,  his  ignorance  and 
presumption.  The  druidess  who  had  more  wit 


THEY  WENT  95 

in  her  little  finger  than  he  in  all  his  skinny  anat- 
omy—  better  blood,  better  breeding,  better 
brains  —  looked  clean  through  him  at  their  first 
meeting.  "  A  dry  nut,"  she  concluded,  "  meat- 
less, and  easily  cracked."  Such  he  proved  to  be. 

Manthis  was  seldom  wrong.  .  .  . 

It  was  not  without  a  knowledge  of  her  rare 
capacities  that  the  great  central  college  in  the 
land  of  the  Carnutes  had  chosen  her,  years  ago, 
to  fill  the  important  post  she  then  occupied. 
From  that  day  onward  Manthis  had  never  taken 
a  false  step.  She  was  the  repository  of  the  lore 
and  learning  of  her  time,  and  men  were  some- 
times disposed  to  call  her  conservative,  or  even 
reactionary,  because  in  her  quality  of  priestess 
she  refused  to  make  any  alteration  in  the  old- 
established  ritual  of  druidism,  any  concession  to 
the  changeful  tastes  of  the  vulgar.  They  called 
her  a  stiff  old  dame. 

Yet,  like  other  stiff  old  dames,  Manthis  was 
not  quite  so  convinced  about  things  as  she  pro- 
fessed to  be.  "  One  gropes,"  she  would  often 
admit  to  herself;  sometimes  even  adding:  "per- 
haps one  gropes  in  a  groove."  Though  her  inner 
life  remained  undisclosed,  and  though  she  never 
voiced  her  opinions  openly,  she  saw  that  there 
was  much  to  be  amended  in  the  spirit  of  the  cult. 
She  disliked  its  sanguinary  practices;  she  was 
not  wholly  persuaded  of  the  divine  properties 


96  THEY  WENT 

of  serpents'  eggs  or  the  efficacy  of  lunar  charms ; 
she  had  good  reasons  to  distrust  the  obligatory 
eating  of  raw  acorns  for  purposes  of  prophecy, 
since  the  practice  invariably  gave  her  acute  grip- 
ing pains.  Her  robes,  again  —  they  were  far 
too  ornate;  she  would  have  them  simpler.  She 
thought  it  a  mistake  that  laymen  had  hitherto 
been  forbidden  to  learn  science,  and  children 
taught  so  many  verses  and  so  little  reading  and 
writing.  There  was  something  to  be  amended 
even  in  the  secret  doctrine.  In  fact,  she  found 
herself  in  disaccord  with  many  tenets  of  her 
faith ;  she  had  misgivings  both  in  matters  of  re- 
ligion and  of  politics,  and  would  have  introduced 
many  innovations  had  it  been  possible.  "  I  have 
no  fair  chance/'  she  often  said  to  herself.  Dan- 
ger was  looming  ahead,  unless  druidism  could  be 
invigorated  with  fresh  blood,  with  fresh  and 
more  liberal  ideas  —  Christian  ideas  or  any 
other,  provided  they  were  what  she  called 
"  wholesome."  It  had  grown  paralysed  and  un- 
able to  fend  off  the  coming  blow.  She  foresaw 
its  decline,  its  possible  extinction,  amid  the  tur- 
bulent ambitions  of  kings  and  nobles.  A  gulf 
was  beginning  to  yawn  between  the  spiritual  and 
worldly  rulers  of  the  race ;  their  ideals  no  longer 
coincided  as  of  old;  they  were  trending  apart. 

Whither  trending? 

Towards  a  break-up  of  happy  social  life. 


THEY  WENT  97 

Why  trending  apart? 

Because  woman,  owing  to  some  momentary, 
inexplicable  and  deplorable  lapse  of  intelligence 
had  forfeited  her  power  for  good.  Such  lapses 
should  never  occur  again!  For  they  gave  the 
male  an  opportunity  of  calling  to  mind  his  old 
and  only  argument,  strength  of  muscle.  The 
male  —  the  weakest  of  the  weak,  if  women  only 
knew  their  business !  Her  thoughts,  on  such  oc- 
casions, went  sadly  backwards  to  other  times, 
better  times,  when  the  whole  race  was  under  the 
domination  of  her  own  sex,  when  women  led  men 
into  battle  and  rulers  hearkened  to  the  counsel 
of  their  queens.  She  pondered  upon  her  official 
gods,  Heus  and  Ogmius  and  the  rest  of  them, 
newcomers  all  —  all  males !  She  remembered 
how,  in  olden  days,  the  female  was  preponderant 
in  religious  matters,  the  cult  of  male  druids 
being  quite  a  recent  invention ;  and  her  musings 
delved  into  dusky  ages  before  the  most  ancient 
oaks  of  the  forest  were  yet  acorns,  when  men 
lived  in  caves,  hunting  the  reindeer  and  sacri- 
ficing to  that  all-powerful  tattooed  goddess,  pre- 
server of  the  race.  The  female  had  ever  taken 
a  leading  part.  And  now  the  world  was  grow- 
ing masculine.  The  male,  that  necessary  evil 
and  creature  of  excess,  moving  always  at.  the 
outer  edge  of  the  circle  —  coarse  sensualist  or 
fatuous  dreamer  of  dreams.  The  male,  that 


98  THEY  WENT 

blind  opinionated  brute  who  thinks  he  is  right, 
because  he  can  hit  with  his  fists.  .  .  . 

She  glanced  at  the  daily  life  which  moved 
around  her.  The  queen,  drowsy  and  lackadaisi- 
cal. ;  .  .  What  might  not  a  woman  in  her  posi- 
tion have  accomplished !  What  chances  she  had 
missed  of  imposing  her  will  upon  that  doting  old 
husband  and,  through  him,  upon  the  country  at 
large!  She  had  made  nothing  of  those  chances, 
wrapped  up,  as  she  was,  in  fond  domestic  con- 
cerns, in  clothing,  provisions,  embroidery.  Em- 
broidery :  a  worthy  occupation  for  high-born 
dames !  Were  there  not  enough  men  for  triflings 
of  this  kind?  Was  there  not  an  entire  street  of 
Oriental  embroiderers  in  the  town,  all  males,  as- 
was  meet  and  proper? 

She  was  wont  to  pause  in  her  reflections,  how- 
ever, when  she  came  to  consider  the  princess. 
She  felt  more  respect  for  that  lustrous  young 
person  than  she  cared  to  show.  True,  the  prin- 
cess was  somewhat  too  tolerant  of  the  other  sex 
(Manthis  had  begun  to  forget  her  own  youth), 
and  those  notions  of  hers,  which  took  shape  in 
the  adornment  of  the  city,  were  alien  to  her 
own.  Manthis  loved  not  beauty,  but  betterment. 
Nevertheless,  she  was  sometimes  forced  to  admit, 
while  passing  through  those  fair  streets : 

"  It  shows  what  a  woman  can  do  when  she 
wants" 


THEY  WENT  99 

Woman  need  only  want  was  a  favourite  axiom 
of  hers.  She  called  it  a  "  pleasant  discovery." 

Then  again,  that  scarlet  streak,  that  sheer 
love  of  killing  —  whence  derived?  For  various 
legends  had  reached  her  ears ;  indeed,  the  matter 
was  beyond  all  doubt.  Manthis  who  was  deeply 
versed,  as  became  her  rank,  in  the  mysteries 
of  metempsychosis  and  who  knew  that  the  grey 
interludes  called  death  are  the  merest  shadows, 
passing  shadows,  in  the  sunshine  of  an  endless 
life,  was  apt  to  wonder  whether  the  princess, 
during  some  earlier  state  of  being,  had  dwelt 
within  the  painted  hide  of  a  tigress.  Was  that 
the  explanation?  Or  was  this  bloodthirstiness 
an  accessory  to  her  fierce  artistic  cravings,  a 
part  and  parcel  of  her  vital  force  —  her  cold  yet 
feverish  nature?  However  that  might  be,  she 
was  disposed  towards  indulgence  even  on  this 
point.  The  princess  was  a  woman,  and  those 
sporadic  mischiefs  were  as  nothing  when  com- 
pared to  the  widespread  harm  done  by  perverse 
creatures  of  the  other  sex.  Often,  puzzling  over 
the  origin  of  these  ferocious  traits,  she  likened 
that  charming  young  lady  to  Heussa,  Queen  of 
Terrors. 

What  could  be  expected,  she  would  then  ask, 
from  parents  such  as  hers?  "  The  girl  was  not 
given  a  fair  chance."  Had  they  but  followed 
her  advice  and  sent  her  to  the  college,  as  they 


100  THEY  WENT 

were  once  on  the  point  of  doing!  Her  youthful 
intelligence  would  then  have  been  moulded  on 
more  wholesome  lines.  For  the  duty  of  Manthis 
as  teacher  was  clear :  to  fit  the  coming  genera- 
tion of  women  for  a  more  preponderating  influ- 
ence on  human  affairs.  This  was  the  base,  the 
fundamental  idea  of  all  her  instruction  at  that 
establishment  which  she  regarded  as  the  apple 
of  her  eye  and  a  sacred  trust :  the  germ  of  better 
things,  the  hope  —  the  only  hope  —  for  the 
future. 

As  to  Christians  and  their  doctrines,  there 
might  be  some  merit  in  them.  She  understood 
that  they  worshipped  a  Virgin,  which  pointed 
obviously  to  a  budding  comprehension  on  their 
part.  It  was  also  not  without  significance,  she 
mused,  that  her  own  faith  had  originally  been 
imported  from  those  white  islands  over  the  sea; 
now  Christians  were  arriving  from  the  same 
quarter.  Such  a  change  of  cult,  she  argued, 
would  not  have  taken  place  without  good  reason. 
Something  could  probably  be  learnt  from  them : 
something  wholesome.  So  it  came  about  that 
she  met  Gwenulfs  first  missionary  —  as,  later 
on,  she  met  Kenwyn  —  in  a  spirit  of  friendliest 
conciliation. 

There  was  nothing  to  be  done  with  that  unrea- 
sonable and  uncompromising  old  person.  His 
ordinary  sermons  would  have  passed  without 


THEY  WENT  :it)i 

comment.  It  was  when  he  started  raving  about 
the  Council  of  Aries  and  the  iniquity  of  lithola- 
trous  practices  that  he  began  to  lose  the  respect 
of  the  citizens,  and  to  grow  unpopular.  "  A  vio- 
lent venerable,"  they  said,  wondering  what  on 
earth  it  mattered  whether  one  did,  or  did  not, 
worship  stones.  Next  he  gave  the  king  a  bad 
shock  by  remarking  one  day: 

"  I  have  now  twenty-one  listeners  in  my  con- 
gregation. I  counted  them  this  morning." 

"  Let  me  congratulate  you !  "  replied  the  mon- 
arch with  a  smile.  "  That  is  charming  of  you. 
I  am  sure  they  are  hearing  much  wisdom  from 
your  lips." 

"  It  is  a  humble  beginning.  The  seed  is  sown 
—  all  praise  to  Heaven.  And  the  number  now 
strikes  me  as  sufficient  for  the  object  in  view. 
Tomorrow  we  purpose,  God  willing,  to  hew  down 
that  damnation  of  abomination  of  desolations  up 
yonder." 

"  To  what  do  you  refer,  my  good  friend?  " 

"  The  dreadful  druidical  grove." 

"  Ho,"  remarked  the  king. 

He  was  too  astonished  to  say  anything  more 
for  two  or  three  minutes.  Then  he  found  suf- 
ficient breath  to  add : 

"  You  would  do  well,  I  think,  to  disclose  your 
project  to  the  quite-too-chaste-and-venerable 
Mother  Manthis." 


102  THEY  WENT 

The  druidess,  having  been  implored  by  the 
/  queen  to  avoid  friction  and  scenes  at  all  cost, 
contrived  with  smooth  words  to  calm  down  his 
iconoclastic  zeal  for  the  time  being.  She  ex- 
plained that  the  grove  had  stood  there  for  several 
thousand  years  —  it  could  well  wait  a  day  or 
so;  it  was  thick  and  fairly  extensive,  further- 
more, and  would  require  much  hewing;  let  him 
preach  a  little  longer  and  gain  a  few  more  con- 
verts. She  had  already  made  up  her  mind  about 
him,  but  never  dreamt  to  what  lengths  of  bad 
taste  and  injustice  he  would  go  till  he  told  her, 
soon  afterwards,  that  his  Church  had  laid  it 
down  that  woman  was  a  necessary  evil  and  a 
creature  of  excess,  a  temptation  of  the  devil,  a 
plague,  a  blight,  a  festering  sore;  and  that  the 
only  good  thing  which  ever  came  out  of  such  an 
impure  vessel,  as  he  called  it,  was  a  male  child  — 
Christian,  by  preference.  Manthis,  whose  opin- 
ion on  the  subject  of  males  was  fairly  well 
known,  did  not  even  say  ho!  She  swallowed 
down  her  wrath  like  a  well-born  lady,  and  heaped 
kindness  on  this  grossest  of  insults  by  inviting 
him  to  visit  the  college  (they  had  not  yet  emi- 
grated to  the  Sacred  Rock),  in  order  that  he 
might  see  with  his  own  eyes  whether  there  was 
anything  amiss  with  the  several  dozen  impure 
vessels  there  studying  under  her  own  charge  and 
that  of  her  teachers. 


THEY  WENT  103 

He  went,  but  had  not  a  word  of  praise  for  the 
dear  little  rosy-cheeked  girls,  their  good  manners, 
their  flawless  deportment  and  recitation  of  runes 
—  not  a  word.  He  spat  on  a  sacred  plant  of 
vervain  which  stood  in  the  garden,  poked  his  nose 
into  dormitories  and  kitchens  — 

"  Now  what  may  this  be? "  he  suddenly  en- 
quired, tapping  with  his  finger  an  enormous 
and  strange-looking  disc  of  bronze  that  hung  in 
the  court-yard  of  the  school.  The  instrument 
gave  forth,  at  that  impact,  an  altogether  un- 
familiar sound  —  a  kind  of  shuddering  groan. 
"  Doubtless  some  diabolical  appliance  for  rais- 
ing tempests,  or  other  sorcery." 

"No,"  said  Manthis  wearily.  Then  she  set 
forth  in  a  few  words  the  history  of  the  thing; 
how  it  came  from  a  distant  Eastern  land  and 
how  she  received  it  as  a  gift  from  the  king,  who 
had  vainly  tried  to  discover  its  purport.  "  We 
use  it  for  summoning  the  little  children  to  their 
midday  meal.  It  shouts  when  smitten." 

"  No  doubt,  no  doubt.  It  shouts  when  smitten 
and  is  useful  for  summoning  the  little  children 
to  their  midday  meal.  That  sounds  extremely 
likely.  It  might  be  useful,  by  the  way,  for  sum- 
moning the  little  devils  to  their  midnight  dances. 
Eh,  druidess?  You  seem  to  take  me  for  a 
precious  fool." 

"  I  do,"  said  Manthis,  who  never  told  a  lie. 


104  THEY  WENT 

So  he  criticized  and  sniffed  about,  trying  to 
find  fault,  and  discovering  at  last  nothing  better 
to  say  than  this : 

"  Sad  to  think  that  these  children  should  be 
reared  as  Satans,  though,  thank  God,  they  are 
only  girls!  I  will  now  meet  you,  old  wench,  in 
a  spirit  of  Christian  reconciliation,  and  tell  you 
what  is  to  be  done.  We  two  will  hold  classes 
here  on  alternate  days.  You  shall  teach  them 
to  wash  and  comb  their  heathen  hair,  and  I  will 
endeavour  to  instil  into  their  poor  little  minds 
some  notions  of  the  true  God.  What  say  you?  " 

Bather  than  submit  to  such  a  proposal,  the 
druidess  would  have  held  her  right  arm  in  the 
fire  till  it  was  burnt  to  the  stump ;  and  then  the 
left  one.  This  was  the  last  straw.  There  was 
nothing  to1  be  done  with  the  grey-haired  horror. 

"  That  settles  it,"  she  thought. 

It  was  observed  on  the  same  evening  that 
Manthis  had  donned  her  girdle  of  pale-blue  cal- 
lais  stones.  "  She  means  business,"  said  the 
townsfolk,  who  had  seen  her  do  the  same  on  vari- 
ous other  solemn  occasions. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

IT  happened  in  a  twinkling.  The  king  and 
citizens  were  enchanted  with  the  idea,  and 
so,  strangely  enough,  was  the  queen  herself 
who,  mild  and  compassionate  as  she  was,  had 
realized  that  there  would  be  no  peace  in  the 
realm  so  long  as  that  lively  source  of  apprehen- 
sions was  allowed  to  flow  distractedly  about  the 
country.  As  to  the  little  princess  —  she,  al- 
though only  a  child,  had  already  formulated  with 
more  than  common  precocity  certain  clear-cut 
notions  as  to  the  kind  of  male  she  fancied,  and 
made  up  her  mind  that  there  was  nothing  what- 
ever to  be  done  with  old  ones,  Christian  or  other- 
wise. An  hour's  consultation  among  the  chief 
notabilities  of  the  town  sufficed  to  draw  up  all 
the  details  for  next  day's  festival. 

On  that  blazing  summer  morning  the  proces- 
sion left  their  homes  early,  on  horseback,  in 
palanquin  or  afoot ;  it  would  be  a  long  march  to 
their  destination  in  the  old  druidical  forest. 
They  crossed  the  plain  by  the  solid  causeway 
which  Ormidius  Limpidus  had  constructed  to  run 
beside  the  stream,  and  not  all  the  company  could 
recall  the  days  when  this  now  fertile  plain  was 

105 


106  THEY  WENT 

nothing  but  a  wind-swept  marsh.  The  king,  rid- 
ing gravely  along,  thought  of  those  times  with 
inward  satisfaction;  so  did  many  of  his  nobles; 
so  did  Ando.  Lelian,  the  armourer,  was  not 
wholly  satisfied.  He  often  regretted  the  recent 
turn  of  events.  The  site  of  the  capital,  he  de- 
clared, should  never  have  been  changed.  Then 
there  would  be  less  commerce,  less  vice,  less 
effeminacy. 

Manthis  was  there.  She  spoke  little.  At- 
tended by  her  babchick  and  by  three  young  male 
druids  who  were  sojourning  in  the  town  on  a  mis- 
sion from  the  interior,  she  moved  forwards,  think- 
ing less  of  the  coming  ceremony  than  of  her 
pupils  whom  she  would  not  see  again  till  the 
evening. 

Soon  the  strong  scent  of  the  sea  was  left  be- 
hind. Chaffinches  were  piping  in  the  pear  trees, 
gaily  coloured  insects  flashed  among  clusters  of 
yellow  flag-lilies  and  other  wayside  blossoms  that 
glittered  in  the  sunshine,  and  the  eyes  of  all  were 
gladdened  by  cheery  patches  of  culture  —  leeks 
and  corn  and  flax  and  hemp.  Many  of  the  hum- 
ble peasantry  abandoned  their  rude  conical  huts 
of  willow  or  reed,  or  stone  without  plaster;  they 
gave  themselves  a  holiday  and  joined  the  proces- 
sion, which  included  nearly  everybody  of  note  in 
the  town.  The  queen  alone  refused  to  be  pres- 
ent, much  to  the  annoyance  of  her  consort. 


THEY  WENT  107 

"What  shall  I  do  all  alone?"  he  had  said. 
"  Besides,  it  would  have  been  such  a  pleasant 
change  for  you !  " 

"  I  dislike  scenes.  Pray  let  me  stay  at  home. 
I  have  many  things  to  do  which  have  been  over- 
looked of  late.  There  is  also  the  great  supper 
to  prepare.  You  will  all  be  twice  as  hungry  as 
usual." 

"  I  observe  you  have  taken  to  thwarting  my 
wishes  lately.  I  am  not  altogether  pleased  with 
you.  Well,  well!  See  that  supper  makes 
amends  for  your  absence." 

They  marched  without  her,  laughing  and  chat- 
ting. 

One  voice  was  heard  above  all  their  lively 
talk;  it  raved  continuously.  It  was  the  voice 
of  the  victim  who,  confined  like  a  beast  in  a 
wicker  basket,  was  led  forward  on  the  back  of  a 
bullock.  Gwenulf  s  missionary  had  begun  to 
curse  loudly  as  soon  as  hands  were  laid  on  his 
person;  from  that  moment  he  had  never  ceased 
to  vociferate  maledictions  and  to  call  down  the 
vengeance  of  the  All-Highest  upon  the  druids 
and  their  devil's  work,  upon  the  town  and  all  it 
contained ;  his  curses  fell  thicker  and  faster  than 
flakes  of  wintry  snow.  He  had  now  been  curs- 
ing for  thirteen  hours,  and  his  voice  was  not  yet 
husky. 

A  halt  was  made  when  they  reached  the  ruins 


108  THEY  WENT 

of  the  former  capital  at  the  foot  of  the  hills. 
Here  they  dismounted  to  rest  and  refresh  them- 
selves in  the  dank  old  square,  all  overgrown  with 
docks  and  luscious  forget-me-nots.  Blue  sky 
peered  down  through  gaps  in  the  walls  of  those 
dismantled  buildings,  out  of  whose  doorways  a 
tangle  of  sweetly  scented  elder  and  privet  were 
thrusting  their  branches.  The  king  could  not 
help  saying,  as  they  lifted  him  out  of  the  saddle : 

"  And  here  we  used  to  live !  Yonder  is  the 
council-hall !  A  hazel,  I  perceive,  is  growing 
out  of  its  wooden  floor.  It  makes  me  feel 
strange,  and  somewhat  lonely.  I  wish  the  queen 
were  here.  It  makes  me  think  of  things  —  old 
things.  What  says  Ando?  " 

"  Me  too,"  replied  the  prophet.  "  It  makes  me 
feel  strange.  Strange,  and  somewhat  thirsty." 

"  Me  too.     Thirsty." 

They  feasted  awhile  among  those  crumbling 
ivy-clad  mansions.  There  was  jollity  through- 
out the  company,  and  a  universal  sense  of  relief 
at  the  thought  that  this  nuisance,  this  menace  to 
the  peace  of  mankind,  was  at  last  to  be  abated. 

"  Bring  him  hither,"  said  some  one,  after  they 
had  eaten  and  drunk  their  fill. 

The  bullock  was  driven  into  their  midst,  with 
the  preacher  cursing  furiously  in  his  basket. 

"  He  curses  better  than  he  preaches,"  observed 
the  little  princess  who  had  once  or  twice  slipped 


THEY  WENT  109 

into  the  chapel  to  listen  to  his  exhortations.  "  I 
like  that  spirit,"  she  added.  "  It  is  the  only 
thing  I  like  about  him." 

Thence  onward  and  upward  through  that  for- 
est where  they  used  to  lay  pits  for  the  mighty 
urus  and  to  hunt  the  stag  and  boar  and  lynx. 
A  few  surprised  woodcutters  left  their  work  and 
joined  the  company.  After  a  long  march  in  the 
hot  hour  of  noon  they  reached  the  sacred  grove. 
The  branches  of  those  venerable  oaks  and  beeches 
and  hollies  were  so  thickly  intertwined  that 
scarce  a  ray  of  sunlight  could  penetrate  to  earth. 
No  breeze  stirred  here;  the  leaves  seemed  to 
flutter  of  their  own  accord.  They  moved  in  sin- 
gle file,  and  a  hush  fell  upon  them  all;  nobody 
spoke;  nothing  was  heard  save  the  maledictory 
brawlings  of  the  victim,  which  sounded  louder 
than  ever  in  this  silence. 

Presently  they  entered  an  open  green  space, 
surrounded  by  hoary  trees.  It  was  the  Field  of 
Adoration.  In  its  centre  stood  the  old,  grey 
Stone  of  Destiny. 

Manthis,  the  evening  before,  had  made  rather 
a  singular  speech. 

"  It  matters  little,"  she  said,  "  whether  he 
shall  end  by  fire  or  water  or  steel;  whether  he 
receive  a  sword-thrust  in  the  back,  or  be  pierced 
by  darts,  or  crucified  or  impaled;  whether  we 
please  Teutates  by  thrusting  his  vile  head  in  a 


110  THEY  WENT 

pail  of  water,  or  burn  him  in  honour  of  Taranis, 
or  conciliate  the  all-potent  Hesus  by  hanging 
that  loathly  carcase  to  a  yew-tree.  It  matters 
nothing!  He  is  no  man,  that  I  should  touch 
him,  or  think  of  this  or  that  regarding  his  fate. 
Never  will  I  sully  my  fingers  with  the  blood  of  a 
miscreant  who  attempts  to  tamper  with  the 
young  —  our  hope,  our  only  hope,  of  better 
things!  Choose  for  yourselves.  Be  it  some- 
thing simple  and  appropriate,  in  that  sacred 
grove  which  the  godless  one  purposed  to  hew 
down." 

They  chose  something  simple  and  appropriate. 

The  victim  having  been  strapped  as  comfort- 
ably as  possible  over  the  curved  surface  of  the 
stone,  and  sprinkled  with  salt,  one  of  the  young 
druids  made  an  aperture  between  his  fourth  and 
fifth  rib  and  drew  out  the  heart  and,  later  on,  by 
another  incision,  the  liver  and  a  few  more  things. 
In  this,  his  maiden  effort,  he  acquitted  himself 
so  creditably  as  to  earn  the  praise  of  Manthis, 
to  whom  the  entrails  were  then  submitted,  reek- 
ing hot,  on  the  traditional  platter  of  birch-wood. 
Standing  there,  austere  and  black  (she  had 
donned  her  dusky  robes),  with  venerable  curls 
drooping  over  those  calm  grey  eyes,  she  poked 
delicately  among  the  relics,  while  the  onlookers 
waited  to  hear  her  verdict.  All  her  humanity 
was  laid  aside.  She  was  no  longer  a  woman,  but 


THEY  WENT  111 

the  servant  of  God.  She  had  a  reputation  to 
keep  up. 

At  last  the  duty  was  ended.  And  still  she  said 
nothing.  The  sovereign  could  no  longer  control 
his  impatience. 

"  How  about  the  omens?  "  he  enquired,  speak- 
ing for  everybody. 

"  These  entrails  are  not  pretty,"  said  Manthis, 
who  never  told  a  lie.  "  I  see  signs  of  woe." 

"  Dear  me,"  replied  the  king.  "  How  vexa- 
tious!" 

Ando  promptly  observed  that  he,  for  his  part, 
was  not  surprised;  not  in  the  least  surprised. 
Christians  were  necromancers  and  capable  of 
anything.  They  could  easily  twist  their  entrails 
into  so  foul  a  shape,  and  impart  to  them  such 
a  sinister  hue,  as  to  scare  out  of  his  wits  anybody 
who  might  have  the  temerity  to  inspect  them. 

"That  is  his  revenge,"  he  said.  "Ha,  ha! 
He  is  trying  to  frighten  us,  the  old  witch- 
monger.77 

Many  of  the  spectators  thought  otherwise. 
They  were  concerned ;  none  more  so  than  Lelian 
the  armourer  and  his  small  group  of  old  believers, 
to  whom  the  word  of  Manthis  was  the  word  of 
God.  A  cloud  of  anxiety  settled  upon  him  from 
that  day  onwards.  Often  in  later  days  he  called 
to  mind  the  scene.  He  remembered  the  last 
words  of  the  Christian  preacher  and  his  proph- 


112  THEY  WENT 

ecy  of  doom  to  the  city,  for  he  cursed  almost  up 
to  the  minute  when  the  knife  entered  his  flesh. 
Vengeance  would  come,  he  cried  ;  vengeance  and 
retribution.  The  devil  would  be  driven  hence. 
The  Cross  would  conquer.  Retribution  from  the 


Retribution  from  the  sea  - 

Solemn  and  mysterious  words.  They  were  the 
last  they  understood  of  his  speech,  for  its  final 
phrases  became  unintelligible  to  them.  Whether 
he  cursed  himself  to  exhaustion,  his  powers  of  re- 
sistance giving  way  from  age  and  infirmity  and 
allowing  him  no  longer  to  bear  the  torture  of  his 
senses,  or  whatever  else  the  cause  might  be,  his 
words  all  at  once  relapsed  into  a  tongue  which 
nobody  had  ever  heard  and  which  sounded 
doubly  fateful  for  that  reason  —  some  barbarous 
idiom  he  had  picked  up  from  his  mother's  lips, 
long  years  ago,  while  playing  as  a  little  boy 
among  the  hawthorn  dells  of  Ireland.  Dim 
stuff  !  It  troubled  them.  And  there  was  worse 
to  come.  For  his  maledictions  were  now  at  an 
end;  he  seemed  to  be  appealing  to  them  as  a 
friend,  and  his  anguished  look  melted  into  a 
smile  serene  as  that  of  an  infant.  Perhaps  he 
was  forgiving  them.  That  smile  —  it  sent  a 
shiver  down  the  backs  of  the  old  believers  and 
disquieted  them  more  than  all  his  curses.  Never 


THEY  WENT  113 

again  could  they  drive  that  kindly,  radiant  look 
from  their  memory. 

"  Racy  talk,  whatever  it  may  mean,"  observed 
the  princess  who  was  not  much  of  an  old  be- 
liever. "If  he  had  always  preached  so  brightly 
and  so  feelingly,  I  might  be  a  Christian  by  this 
time." 

Manthis  said : 

"  He  has  a  reputation  to  keep  up,  my  child." 

"  He  had,  good  Manthis." 

What  remained  of  Gwenulf  s  missionary  was 
thereafter  burnt,  for  form's  sake,  in  the  com- 
modious basket  of  willow  branches. 

He  went. 

There  was  an  end  to  that  misunderstanding. 

The  procession  trudged  homewards,  Manthis 
having  departed  a  good  hour  before  everybody 
else,  in  order  to  superintend  the  evening  classes 
at  her  college.  There,  when  all  the  children  had 
gone  to  bed,  the  babchick  of  the  day,  a  quick- 
witted maiden  who  had  been  vastly  interested 
in  the  ceremony,  gave  such  a  glowing  account  of 
the  day's  proceedings  to  her  fellow-pupils  that 
they  envied  her  good  luck.  Thinking,  in  their 
childish  simplicity,  that  a  new  Christian 
preacher  might  arrive  at  any  moment  from  over 
the  sea  and  meet  with  the  same  fate,  they  strove 
to  become  babchick  in  order  not  to  miss  the  spec- 


114  THEY  WENT 

tacle,  and  Manthis,  for  all  her  wisdom  and  in- 
sight, failed  utterly  to  comprehend  the  reason 
for  the  painful  attention  to  dress  and  manner, 
that  breathless  interest  in  music  and  astronomy 
and  medicine,  which  the  older  of  her  girls  began 
to  display  from  the  same  moment  onwards. 

At  court,  meanwhile,  a  sombre  atmosphere  pre- 
vailed. The  king,  preoccupied  like  many  of  his 
subjects,  was  observed  to  grow  proportionately 
fuddled  as  evening  wore  on ;  more  fuddled,  more 
military,  than  usual.  It  was  his  approved 
method  of  combating  perturbation  of  mind  and 
unpleasant  thoughts.  In  fact,  he  was  on  the 
verge  of  high-water  mark  when  the  queen,  as 
usual,  interfered  and  had  him  put  to  bed.  On 
reaching  his  chamber,  the  old  man  grew  boy- 
ishly obstreperous,  vowing  he  would  take  off 
nothing  whatever,  save  his  gold  crown  and  the 
key  of  the  sluice-gate  which  hung  at  his  girdle. 

"  The  key?  "  anxiously  enquired  his  consort 
who,  to  set  him  a  good  example,  had  already 
composed  herself  to  slumber.  "  The  key  you 
shall  not  take  off.  Certainly  not!  Especially 
after  those  entrails;  those  omens  and  curses. 
Certainly  not.  Now  wear  it,  like  a  good  man." 

She  meant  to  keep  a  sharper  eye  than  ever  on 
that  key. 

"  Certainly  not !  The  key  is  mine,  my  dear," 
he  replied.  "  How  often  have  I  told  you  that 


THEY  WENT  115 

I  can  do  what  I  like  with  it!  The  stupid  key, 
always  dangling  here.  It  shall  be  thrown  into 
the  Great  Drain  tomorrow.  Perhaps  then  you 
will  understand  that  I  can  do  what  I  please.  I 
can,  and  will.  So  help  me,  Belen." 

"  Close  your  eyes,  old  friend,  and  go  to  sleep. 
It  is  past  midnight." 

"  Certainly  not.  I  observe  you  have  taken  to 
thwarting  my  wishes  lately.  I  am  not  altogether 
pleased,  let  me  tell  you.  Something  will  have  to 
be  done  about  it." 

"  In  the  morning,"  said  the  queen.  She  pre- 
tended to  be  asleep.  It  was  an  expedient  she 
had  learnt  to  adopt,  many  years  ago,  whenever 
her  consort  was  seized  with  one  of  his  nocturnal 
talking  fits.  Otherwise  he  was  liable  to  chatter 
for  ever. 

"  In  the  morning.  Certainly  not.  You  should 
amuse  me  now,  in  the  evening,  after  my  terrible 
day  with  those  entrails.  Sing  me  a  song  .  .  . 
No?  You  women  are  all  alike.  You  never  en- 
tertain your  husbands.  You  never  say  funny 
things,  except  when  you  are  trying  to  be  serious. 
Look  at  that  girl  of  ours.  Has  she  ever  made 
any  one  laugh?  Not  me.  Never  even  talks  to 
her  old  father  unless  she  wants  something  from 
him.  I  fear  she  is  not  a  kind  girl.  And  Man- 
this  —  what  fun  will  you  get  out  of  Man  this? 
Tell  me  that." 


116  THEY  WENT 

"  In  the  morning " 

"A  crowd  of  moulting  pelicans  and  puffins. 
Something  will  have  to  be  done  about  it.  I 
must  change  my  habits.  Belen  alone  knows 
why  a  man  ever  marries.  No  more  women  for 
me!  A  shipload  of  young  sailorboys,  who  can 
frolic  and  laugh.  .  .  .  Ando,  the  old  sot.  Bad 
company  for  a  king.  Drunkards  are  a  sorry 
crew." 

"  In  the  morning " 

"Wake  up.  I  want  to  be  amused.  The 
council-chamber  today,  all  in  ruins  and  full  of 
green  things  —  it  was  not  amusing.  And  that 
preacher  set  my  nerves  on  edge  with  his  curses. 
I  wish  you  had  been  there  to  help  me.  You 
never  want  to  talk  when  I  want  to  talk.  I  am 
beginning  to  be  seriously  displeased  with  you. 
Nobody  loves  me.  The  pink  porpoise  —  how  it 
laughed " 

"  In  the  morning " 

"A  funny  bird.  Perhaps  it  will  come  back 
some  day,  pinker  than  ever.  It  is  now.  swim- 
ming about  the  water  again,  Belen  knows  where. 
The  sea  is  too  big,  and  the  tide  too  noisy.  I  can 
hear  it  —  bump!  against  the  embankment.  It 
shakes  the  bed  each  time.  Suppose  it  came  in 
here?  I  am  not  a  pink  porpoise,  let  me  tell 
you.  I  shall  dream  of  a  flood  tonight,  if  you  ever 
let  me  go  to  sleep.  There  —  bump !  Something 


THEY  WENT  117 

will  have  to  be  done  about  that  tide.  Always 
bump  —  bump What  did  you  say?  " 

"  Nothing." 

"Ah!  I  thought  you  were  only  pretend- 
ing. .  .  ." 


CHAPTER  IX 

SEVERAL  years  elapsed  ere  the  saintly 
Gwenulf  heard  that  his  preacher  had 
perished  —  in  a  shipwreck,  it  was  said. 
Filled  with  Christian  zeal,  he  held  this  devil's 
town  to  be  worthy  of  another  effort  and  dis- 
patched, after  anxious  deliberation,  a  younger 
and  robuster  man,  one  who  could  wrestle  and 
ride  and  swim  and  fight,  if  needful:  Kenwyn, 
his  second  missionary.  Of  Kenwyn's  preaching 
capacities,  of  his  enthusiasm  and  uprightness 
of  soul,  there  was  no  doubt  whatever.  None  the 
less,  Gwenulf  felt  misgivings.  He  knew  some- 
thing of  his  disciple's  earlier  and  desperate 
career,  of  his  impulsive  nature  and  how  he  had 
been  reclaimed  by  a  miracle,  and  only  by  a  mira- 
cle, from  his  evil  ways.  He  consoled  himself  by 
reflecting  that  the  first  flush  of  Kenwyn's  youth 
was  now  over,  that  the  converted  sinner  makes 
the  most  ardent  Christian  and  that  the  dreamy, 
inflammable  passions  of  Kenwyn,  directed  to  a 
worthy  end,  would  kindle  the  fire  in  others  who 
might  remain  indifferent  to  an  envoy  of  colder 
mind. 

The  saintly  man  would  have  been  surprised 
to  see  his  disciple  just  then,  not  preaching  to  a 

118 


THEY  WENT  119 

crowded  congregation  of  heathens,  but  walking 
in  friendly-wise  under  the  trees  of  a  garden  so 
fairly  set  that  it  might  have  passed  for  the  Gar- 
den of  Eden,  save  for  the  fact  that  the  beasts 
it  contained  were  not  free  but  enclosed,  like 
Christian  missionaries,  within  cages;  walking 
from  one  of  those  cages  to  the  other,  while  a 
strange  and  beautiful  young  lady,  her  hand  rest- 
ing lightly  on  his  arm,  told  him  a  little  something 
(practically  nothing  at  all)  about  his  predeces- 
sor's life  in  that  God-abandoned  city,  and  his  con- 
flict with  a  certain  druidess,  the  quite-too-chaste- 
and-venerable  Mother  Manthis. 

Here  were  peacocks,  and  the  strangely-horned 
strepsichorus  antelope,  and  sea-calves  with  gen- 
tle eyes,  and  a  valiant  estriche  bird  from  the 
sandy  wastes  of  Numidia.  The  princess  re- 
marked : 

"  If  you  ask  the  common  folk  about  this  un- 
holy fowl  they  will  say  that  not  long  ago  it 
kicked  a  man  over  the  embankment  into  the  sea, 
where  he  was  found  three  days  afterwards,  swim- 
ming somewhere  beyond  the  Sacred  Rock.  I  tell 
you  this  in  order  that  you  may  learn  not  to  be- 
lieve everything  you  hear  in  the  town.  Try  to 
recollect  what  I  say,  my  friend." 

She  spoke  with  a  good  deal  of  earnestness. 
Maybe  she  was  afraid  lest  certain  legends  con- 
cerning herself  should  come  to  his  ears. 


120  THEY  WENT 

The  other  merely  observed : 

"  It  is  all  strange  —  these  animals " 

"Am  I  strange,  Kenwyn?" 

"  She  seemed  a  kind  old  lady,  when  I  spoke 
to  her." 

"  Who?  » 

He  was  still  thinking  of  Manthis,  concerning 
whom  the  princess  had  given  him  to  understand 
only  this  much:  that  she  was  a  person  of  pro- 
nounced opinions,  and  not  to  be  thwarted  with 
impunity. 

"  The  druidess,"  he  replied. 

"  So  she  is.  I  agree  with  most  of  what  she 
says;  not  with  everything.  For  example,  she 
does  not  think  much  of  your  sex.  Neither  do  I. 
But  my  views  are  not  so  extreme  as  hers,"  she 
added,  with  a  smile.  "  Rest  assured,  Kenwyn, 
that  she  had  drunk  deeply,  as  we  say,  of  the 
waters  of  Entri.  Beware!  She  is  a  magician. 
She  can  read  the  clouds,  and  dreams ;  she  knows 
every  man's  Awenn.  They  say  she  can  lay 
eggs." 

"  Is  it  possible?  " 

"  A  kindly  dame,  none  the  less.  But  some- 
thing of  a  thistle,  especially  in  regard  to  her 
pupils.  Therefore  I  advise  you,  if  you  value 
your  life,  to  leave  those  children  alone.  Else 
there  will  be  another  misunderstanding,  and 
then " 


THEY  WENT  121 

She  ceased  abruptly.  The  druidess  herself 
stood  at  a  few  yards'  distance.  She  had  not 
yet  observed  them. 

Surrounded  by  a  group  of  her  young  people 
(the  babchick  was  there),  she  was  gazing  into 
a  grated  receptacle  that  held  a  portentous  baboon 
captured  in  some  stony  African  ravine  —  a  sav- 
age and  solitary  beast  of  furrowed  cheeks,  tat- 
tooed with  bright  colours  on  the  wrong  part  of 
that  uncouth  body  whose  hairy  arms  hung  limply 
downwards,  resting  on  the  in-turned  fingers, 
while  his  eyes  stared  out  upon  the  world  with  an 
air  of  low  ferocity. 

"  How  very  like  a  man !  "  the  druidess  was  say- 
ing, when  she  caught  sight  of  the  two. 

She  often  took  a  dozen  or  so  of  her  pupils  to 
see  the  animals,  as  a  matter  of  "  pure  instruc- 
tion." She  held  it  to  be  part  of  a  liberal  school- 
ing for  women  to  learn  something  about  the 
wild  creatures  of  the  earth,  in  whose  habits 
and  economy  there  was  much  of  practical  conse- 
quence to  be  noted.  In  her  quality  of  teacher, 
the  druidess  had  fairly  comprehensive  ideas  of 
what  girls  ought  to  know. 

Now  they  greeted  one  another,  and  Manthis 
whispered  to  the  princess,  alluding  to  Harre" 
who,  as  usual,  was  following  his  mistress  and 
whom  she  was  wont  to  contrast  unfavourably 
with  young  persons  of  her  own  sex. 


122  THEY  WENT 

"  Keep  that  male  of  yours  away  from  my  chil- 
dren. The  small  one,  I  mean;  that  blue  thing. 
He  ought  to  be  in  the  cage  here,  with  his  big 
brother/' 

It  was  another  point  on  which  the  two  ladies 
did  not  agree.  The  princess  also  knew  some- 
thing about  males.  She  often  thought  Manthis 
unfair  to  her  little  boy,  and  unappreciative  of 
his  rare  qualities.  But  what,  after  all,  could  the 
old  lady  know  of  these  qualities? 

The  old  lady  knew  a  good  deal  —  she  knew 
more  than  she  need  have  known,  though  perhaps 
not  everything. 

Her  children,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  seemed  to 
be  far  less  afraid  of  the  blue  pest  than  of  that 
tall,  grave  man  with  the  black  beard  and  black 
cloak.  They  had  heard  about  him  from  the 
new  babchick.  He  was  the  second  Christian 
preacher.  They  kept  away  from  him.  When 
would  he  be  sacrificed  —  and  how?  Roasted? 
Boiled?  Or  would  he  turn  them  all  into  hedge- 
hogs before  Manthis  had  time  to  utter  the  neces- 
sary counter-charm? 

The  druidess  remarked: 

"  I  want  these  young  ones  to  see  the  Phoenix 
bird." 

Manthis  disapproved  of  the  Phoenix,  a  spurred 
and  crested  prodigy,  resplendent  in  feathers  of 
gold,  who  pecked  in  regal  fashion  at  his  food 


THEY  WENT  123 

amid   a   company   of   demurely  coloured   hens. 

"  Look  at  the  Phoenix,  girls,  and  tell  me  your 
conclusions.  Keflect  before  you  open  your 
mouth,  and  speak  distinctly." 

"  He  is  beautiful/'  said  one  of  them,  at  last. 

"  He  struts  about  as  if  the  world  belonged  to 
him.'7 

"  The  lady  birds  appear  to  occupy  a  subordi- 
nate position." 

Man  this  enquired: 

"  And  what  says  the  babchick?" 

"  There  is  something  altogether  wrong  about 
him,"  declared  the  babchick. 

"  True.  There  is  something  wrong,  we  are 
inclined  to  say,  about  many  things.  When,  not 
long  ago,  the  sun  was  suddenly  darkened  at  mid- 
day, what  did  we  say?  We  said:  there  is  some- 
thing wrong  about  it.  If,  at  this  moment,  the 
sea  were  to  rush  over  the  embankment  and  cover 
the  soil  on  which  we  stand,  what  should  we  say? 
There  is  something  wrong  about  it.  That  pecu- 
liar gentleman  yonder  with  the  forked  beard  — 
you  see  him,  children?  He  is  limping  in  our 
direction ;  he  has  been  wounded  in  one  foot ;  he 
is  lame.  There  is  something  wrong  about  him. 
Yet  these  wrong  things  are  ever  before  our  eyes, 
if  we  care  to  use  them.  They  are  there  for  our 
enlightenment,  in  order  to  show  us  what  ought 
not  to  be.  For  the  rule  of  nature  is  that  the 


124  THEY  WENT 

sun  shall  shine  by  day,  that  the  sea  shall  keep 
to  its  appointed  boundary,  and  that  mankind, 
even  males,  shall  walk  more  or  less  straight. 
This  Phcenix  bird  is  noteworthy,  because  it  is  ex- 
ceptional. A  contrarious  creature!  An  exam- 
ple not  to  be  followed,  but  avoided.  You  grasp 
my  meaning?  " 

"Oh,  yes." 

"All  of  you?" 

"  Yes,  yes !  " 

The  princess,  repressing  a  smile,  observed: 

"  Bother  the  Phoenix.  I  must  see  the  dragon. 
He  comes  from  the  Mountains  of  the  Moon,"  she 
exclaimed  to  Kenwyn.  "A  young  Ethiopian 
chieftain  gave  him  to  me.  The  poor  dragon! 
He  was  not  well,  a  few  days  ago.  Not  at  all 
well." 

"  Dragons,"  said  Manthis  to  her  girls,  "  have 
various  shapes,  and  none  are  useful  to  mankind. 
There  is  little  to  betearnt  from  them/  save  by 
way  of  warning.  However,  let  us  inspect  the 
nuisance." 

He  lay  in  his  £age,  at  the  entrance  of  an  arti- 
ficial cavern,  gasping,  languishing.  He  was  ill. 
He  suffered  from  the  moist  sea  air,  after  the  dry 
warmth  of  his  native  rocks.  His  eyes  were 
closed. 

"  I  fear  he  will  die,"  said  the  princess  sadly. 
"  He  has  eaten  nothing  for  many  weeks.  Noth- 


THEY  WENT  .     125 

ing!  I  brought  him  a  white  chicken,  and  clear 
water,  with  my  own  hands.  I  brought  him  apri- 
cots and  salad,  and  cakes,  and  cream  and  honey. 
There  they  lie,  untasted.  My  poor  dragon.  .  .  ." 

The  preacher,  who  had  hitherto  spoken  little, 
now  turned  to  Manthis : 

"  I  cannot  help  admiring  your  pupils  in  their 
cheerful  red  and  whjte  mantles.  What  bright 
eyes,  what  rosy  complexions !  They  must  lead  a 
healthy  and  happy  life.  They  remind  me  of  the 
little  ones  in  my  own  country.  And  all  with 
open  hair  save  the  babchick,  who,  I  perceive, 
wears  it  plaited.  Doubtless  a  peculiar  mark, 
for  the  time  being?  " 

"  As  you  say !  It  is  also  the  babchick's  priv- 
ilege to  pronounce  what  we  call  grace  —  to  in- 
voke a  blessing  from  the  Lord  of  Light  upon 
our  midday  meal.  You  shall  see  them  in  their 
home  one  of  these  days,"  she  went  on,  "  and 
look  over  the  college.  Tlfe  girls  will  row  you 
across  in  our  own  boat.  They  all  learn  to  row 
and  sail.  Would  you  care  to  talk  to  any  of 
them?  » 

"  I  would,  but  for  the  fact  that  they  seem  to 
be  discomposed  at  my  presence,  I  know  not 
why- 

"  No  woman  is  ever  discomposed,"  said  Man- 
this drily,  adding,  as  she  looked  around,  "  Now 
where  is  the  babchick?  " 


126  THEY  WENT 

That  person  was  discovered  hiding  behind  one 
of  the  taller  girls. 

"  Come,  Babchick !  Address  a  few  pleasant 
words  to  our  Christian  friend.  Listen  carefully 
if  he  happens  to  tell  you  anything  of  note,  and 
try  to  hold  your  head  up  when  you  speak.  Now 
try  your  best,  my  child." 

The  babchick  stepped  forward  with  great  bold- 
ness. 

"  You  like  dragons?  "  she  began. 

"  Not  much/'  replied  the  preacher.  "  And 
you?" 

"  Not  much.  We  have  no  dragons  on  our 
island,"  she  went  on.  "  Only  sea-gulls." 

"You  like  sea-gulls?" 

"  Better  than  dragons." 

"  So  do  I,"  said  the  preacher.  "  Now  why  do 
you  like  them  better?  " 

"  Because,  for  one  thing,  they  can  lay 
eggs.  .  .  ." 

The  others,  meanwhile,  were  still  contemplat- 
ing the  invalid,  and  throwing  pebbles  at  him  to 
"  wake  him  up."  At  last  they  succeeded. 
Painfully  he  opened  an  eye,  with  a  malicious 
leer,  and  closed  it  again. 

"  Look !  He  is  winking,"  said  one  of  the  chil- 
dren who  had  an  elder  sister  in  the  town.  "  He 
knows  something.  I  wonder  what  he  knows.  If 
dragons  could  talk " 


THEY  WENT  127 

"  They  would  perhaps  tell  lady-girls  to  mind 
their  own  affairs,"  observed  Manthis,  who  had 
overheard  the  remark. 

As  for  the  princess,  she  turned  aside.  She  was 
suffering  from  one  of  her  rare  moments  of  melan- 
choly. She  called  to  mind  a  little  episode.  .  .  . 

He  had  been  so  desperately  in  love,  that  young 
Ethiopian,  so  brave  in  his  feather-plumes,  so 
winsome  of  feature.  Imprudently  one  day  he 
told  her  of  dragons  in  his  country.  Straight- 
way she  yearned  for  a  dragon.  She  must  needs 
have  a  dragon.  She  said : 

"  First  a  dragon.     Then  a  kiss." 

After  twenty-three  months  he  returned  with 
the  monster  which  had  been  enticed  out  of  its 
cave  with  the  lure  of  a  plump  negro-baby  tied 
to  a  tree  hard  by,  and  then  emmeshed  in  the 
folds  of  a  mighty  hunting-net ;  he  returned,  look- 
ing more  attractive  than  before.  No  man  had 
ever  pleased  her  better  —  almost  none.  And  the 
dragon  surpassed  her  wildest  expectations.  A 
lordly  worm!  It  clashed  its  teeth  and  rocked 
about  with  rage,  scattering  the  soil  in  a  whirl- 
pool of  dust. 

How  they  joked  and  frolicked,  that  afternoon ! 

"  I  have  kept  my  word/'  he  said. 

"  And  I  shall  keep  mine.  Such  a  dragon  is 
well  worth  a  kiss.  Worth  more  than  a  kiss,  I 
fancy  " 


128  THEY  WENT 

"  More  than  a  kiss  is  worth  more  than  a 
dragon,"  he  replied  gallantly.  Then  he  laughed 
outright.  "  I  must  up,"  he  vowed,  "  and  fetch 
a  bigger  one.  This  is  the  merest  suckling.  Or 
would  you  have  a  basilisk?  " 

"  Stay  with  me,"  she  whispered.  "  Stay !  I 
love  you  better  than  a  wilderness  of  dragons." 

Late  in  the  night  Harre  announced,  as  usual, 
that  a  stranger  craved  admittance  to  her  tower. 
"  The  Ethiopian  chieftain,  I  think." 

"  Inded?  "  she  replied,  as  usual.  "  Now  go  to 
bed,  HarreV'  And  the  devoted  blue  innocent,  as 
usual,  tripped  off. 

As  usual  —  ah,  well ! 

A  good  deal  of  water  had  flowed  down  the 
Great  Drain  since  that  evening;  water  and  some 
other  things.  The  Great  Drain  told  no  tales. 

He  went. 

And  now  the  dragon  was  going  too.  .  .  . 

"You  are  wistful,  my  lady,"  said  a  voice  at 
her  side.  "  No  wonder.  A  distempered  dragon 
is  a  horrid  sight.  The  agonies  of  common  beasts 
and  common  men  move  us  less  than  those  of  mon- 
sters or  of  gods.  Great  things  should  be  exempt 
from  pain." 

It  was  Theophilus,  the  Greek  merchant. 

Was  he  a  Greek,  she  wondered?  He  looked 
more  like  a  Jew,  a  dissatisfied  kind  of  Jew,  chaf- 
ing under  some  perpetual  and  incurable  griev- 


THEY  WENT  129 

ance.  He  seemed  to  have  a  quarrel  with  the 
universe.  She  remembered  exchanging  a  few 
words  with  him  on  the  previous  evening.  She 
also  remembered  noticing,  then,  that  he  was  in- 
tent on  Kenwyn's  doings  and  speeches;  he 
watched  him  persistently  all  the  time,  even  while 
playing  chess  with  the  old  king.  And  now  a 
singular  idea  flitted  through  her  brain:  had  he 
come  to  spy  on  the  Christian  preacher?  They 
had  arrived  in  the  town  on  the  same  afternoon. 
That  was  odd,  she  thought.  Here  he  was  again, 
close  beside  Kenwyn.  Why  else  had  he  come 
to  this  garden?  Why  else,  save  to  spy? 

"  I  came  to  this  garden,"  continued  the  Greek, 
"because  they  told  me  it  was  one  of  the  sights  of 
the  place.  And  so  it  is !  " 

"You  like  dragons?"  enquired  the  princess 
politely  but  absentmindedly.  Her  heart  was 
still  in  the  Great  Drain. 

"Not  when  they  bite  my  toe,"  replied  The- 
ophilus  with  a  wan  smile. 

Laughingly  she  said : 

"  I  wish  I  had  been  there.  I  like  to  see  such 
little  accidents.  Did  it  hurt?  " 

The  other  took  no  notice  of  the  question.  He 
said: 

"  Now  this  creature,  look  you,  would  be  called 
an  unsightly  brute  by  thoughtless  men.  We 
two,  princess,  are  not  of  that  undiscerning  kind. 


130  THEY  WENT 

Observe  his  scales  —  how  they  shine,  how  they 
flicker  restlessly  in  green  and  gold  and  red  and 
blue  with  every  movement  of  his  lungs  and  mus- 
cles. They  look  like  living  metal.  They  are 
only  the  dragon's  corslet.  What  would  a  fair 
lady  not  give  to  have  a  corslet  that  should  glister 
as  does  that  leathery  hide,  flashing  while  her 
bosom  heaves  with  breath ;  a  corslet  that  should 
look  like  living  dragon's  scales  and  yet  be  only 
metal?  I  have  observed  much  metal  in  this 
town.  Nobody,  it  seems,  can  play  with  it  so  cun- 
ningly ;  nobody  can  make  it  sparkle ;  nobody  can 
tease  it  into  shapely  grains  and  blow  them  full 
of  rainbow  tints  that  throb  and  mingle  like  the 
jewels  on  a  butterfly's  wing " 

He  seemed  to  "  wake  up,"  like  the  dragon.  A 
new  light,  a  look  of  inspiration,  came  into  his 
eyes.  The  plain  man,  while  uttering  those  few 
words,  grew  almost/  fair  to  see. 

Still  only  half  listening,  she  agreed: 

"  It  would  be  a  pretty  dress." 

"  I  happen  to  know  the  art " 

"  Let  us  now  visit  the  unicorns,"  interrupted 
Manthis.  "  Our  time  is  fast  running  out,  and 
unicorns  are  unquestionably  more  instructive 
than  dragons." 

They  moved  on.  The  princess  turned  to  seek 
Theophilus,  who  had  contrived  to  hit  upon  one 
of  her  weak  points;  on  reflection,  she  would  have 


THEY  WENT  131 

liked  to  hear  more  about  this  strange  art  of 
playing  with  metal  —  an  art  of  which  her  dwarfs, 
evidently,  knew  nothing.  The  Greek  was  no 
longer  to  be  seen.  He  must  have  withdrawn 
himself  while  Manthis  was  speaking. 

The  unicorn  family  dwelt  on  a  spacious  tri- 
angular enclosure  of  grass. 

In  one  corner  of  this  verdant  mead,  all  by  it- 
self, lay  the  little  baby,  dead,  with  stiffened 
limbs ;  it  had  succumbed  the  night  before  to  neg- 
lect and  exposure,  like  the  last  one.  In  the  next 
corner,  with  her  back  turned  to  it,  reclined  the 
female  parent,  thinking  obviously  of  other  con- 
cerns. In  a  third  corner,  with  his  back  turned 
to  both  of  them,  stood  the  male  face  downwards, 
sulkily  polishing  against  a  stone  that  marvellous 
horn  of  his,  which  glowed  like  a  crystal  in  the 
sunshine. 

"  This  is  what  I  wished  you  to  see,  children," 
said  Manthis.  "  Unicorns  are  lonely  things  and 
notoriously  scarce.  Now  you  know  the  reason 
why.  They  have  no  sense  of  family  life;  they 
never  take  care  of  their  offspring.  They  forget 
their  parents,  their  children ;  their  wives  and 
husbands.  They  only  think  of  those  wonderful 
horns.  Look  at  him !  " 

"  How  truly  pitiful,"  observed  the  babchick. 

"  We  are  the  lonely  unicorns,  princess,"  said  a 
voice  at  that  young  person's  side, 


132  THEY  WENT 

It  was  TheopMlus  again. 

"  Tell  me,  Theophilus  —  tell  me  about  those 
dragon's  scales,  and  how  we  may  be  able  to  copy 
them  out  of  such  metal  as  the  town  contains.  I 
would  gladly  learn  your  process  and,  if  it  be  a 
secret,  I  will  pay  what  price  you  ask.  Our  old 
armourer,  Lelian " 

"  Let  us  talk  about  it,  princess,  on  some  other 
occasion.  I  must,  alas,  leave  you  this  very  mo- 
ment, having  given  my  word  to  certain  friends,  to 
meet  them  within  an  hour."  He  spoke  in  cour- 
teous tones,  but  with  an  uncommon  show  of  de- 
cision. Bowing  respectfully,  he  hobbled  away, 
then  and  there. 

The  princess  looked  after  him,  amazed  at  his 
conduct.  She  was  not  accustomed  to  being 
treated  after  this  fashion.  An  ungracious  for- 
eigner !  "  He  knows  what  he  wants,"  she  pre- 
sently concluded  not  without  a  faint  trace  of 
approval  at  his  marked  independence  of  spirit. 
"  Or  perhaps  he  dislikes  the  neighbourhood  of 
Kenwyn."  Now  what  had  he  meant  by  compar- 
ing her,  and  himself,  to  lonely  unicorns?  And 
where,  by  the  way,  had  she  seen  his  face  before? 
For  it  suddenly  dawned  upon  her  that  Theophi- 
lus was  not  wholly  the  stranger  he  appeared  to 
be.  Those  weary  eyes  —  they  were  familiar ; 
had  they  not  gazed  into  her  own  long,  long  ago, 


THEY  WENT  133 

beckoning  to  her,  as  it  were,  from  another  world? 
Where  —  when? 

He  was  gone.     She  forgot  the  incident. 

"  We  too  must  depart,'7  said  Manthis,  viewing 
the  sun  and  measuring  its  distance  above  the 
horizon  by  means  of  her  outstretched  hand. 
"  We  must  hence,  or  we  shall  miss  the  tide.  The 
tide  is  marching  to  its  head." 

Manthis  had  made  an  exhaustice  study  of  the 
tides,  and  taught  her  girls  all  there  was  to  be 
learnt  concerning  them.  She  could  tell  their 
condition  at  any  moment  of  the  year.  Many  a 
time  and  oft  she  pondered  upon  this  useless  com- 
ing  and  going  of  the  watery  mass.  It  struck 
her  as  a  remarkable  instance  of  that  brutal  mis- 
directed force  which  was  exemplified  through- 
out nature,  by  the  male  principle. 


CHAPTER  X 

KENWYN  and  his  conductress  were  alone. 
Day  drew  to  a  close.  Yet  they  lingered 
in  that  garden,  loth  to  quit  its  ordered 
paths  and  flowers  and  strange  inhabitants.  On 
issuing  at  last,  the  princess  said : 

"  Those  animals  have  made  me  hungry.  I 

must  eat  some  plums,  here "  pointing  to  a 

gaudy  tavern  hung  with  flags,  which  she  entered 
in  her  free,  democratic  manner.  The  proprietor 
seemed  to  know  her  tastes,  for  a  large  basket  of 
fruit  was  straightway  set  before  her.  She  took 
one,  and  then  another,  and  another,  saying: 

"  I  could  live  on  such  fare.  Meat  and  wine  — 
they  are  not  for  me.  What  makes  men  devour 
such  things?  ...  I  taught  these  folks  a  good 
deal  about  plums  and  forced  them  to  cultivate 
several  new  kinds  on  the  plain  yonder.  The 
young  trees  of  this  plant  were  brought  in  their 
own  earth  from  Susa;  the  fruit  is  smaller,  you 
see,  than  the  common  kind,  but  far  sweeter. 
Follow  my  example !  Try  one,  or  two,  or  three." 

"  Sweeter,"  he  agreed. 

"  I  reward  the  successful  gardeners,  and 
banish  those  that  fail.  It  is  a  wonderful  sys- 

134 


THEY  WENT  135 

tern.  .  .  .  We  have  now  many  kinds,  black  and 
red  and  yellow.  We  try  to  graft  them  on 
almonds.  We  have  the  Armenian  plum,  the  best 
scented  of  all,  and  perdrigon  and  harvest  and 
cherry  plums,  and  those  from  Damascus  with  the 
large  stone  and  little  flesh.  And  now  I  hear  of 
an  Egyptian  plum  which  ripens  in  winter,  and 
whose  leaves  never  fall  off.  Doubtless  you  know 
about  it." 

"  I  know  nothing  of  such  matters,"  said  the 
preacher.  "  I  wish  I  did,"  he  added.  He  would 
have  given  much  to  fall  in  with  her  humour. 
She  only  laughed. 

"  You  know  nothing  of  painting.  You  know 
nothing  of  plums.  Tell  me,  Kenwyn,  what  do 
you  know?  " 

Now  is  the  time,  he  thought,  to  speak  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

Where  was  it  gone,  that  old  eloquence?  Dried 
up;  parched.  He  was  mute;  his  very  thoughts 
had  strayed  away  and  refused  to  be  marshalled 
back  into  their  order.  In  the  fibre  of  her  being 
lay  something  which  filled  him  with  horror.  Her 
intelligence,  which  he  could  not  but  observe,  was 
chained  to  the  service  of  perverse  ideals.  Not 
an  ounce  of  goodness  —  cruel,  resourceful,  aspir- 
ing !  That  mind  of  hers  —  he  seemed  to  be  look 
ing  into  an  abyss.  Yet  her  form,  her  face  .  .  . 
there  rose  up,  before  his  eyes,  memories  of  cer- 


136  THEY  WENT 

tain  moments  during  those  unregenerate  days, 
moments  of  godless  felicity,  of  contact  with  the 
flesh.  Buried  moments.  What  if  they  awoke 
from  the  dead? 

He  could  only  look  on,  meanwhile,  as  she  de- 
voured the  fruit  with  childish  glee. 

"  How  many  have  I  eaten?  " 

"  Twenty-five/'  he  replied,  counting  the  stones. 
"  And  I  thirteen." 

"Enough,"  she  said.  Then,  as  they  issued 
once  more  into  the  street: 

"  That  horrid  old  predecessor  of  yours  —  he 
talked  too  much.  And  you,  Kenwyn  —  you 
talk  too  little.  What  are  you  thinking  of,  so 
gravely?  " 

,  "  I  was  thinking  —  I  cannot  tell  you  my 
thoughts.  Why  do  you  collect  those  animals?  " 

"  For  fun.  It  was  not  my  idea.  The  Sultan 
of  Babylonia  told  me  he  had  a  garden  like  this 
one.  It  was  he  who  gave  me  the  notion,  and 
laid  out  the  grounds.  I  always  try  to  discover 
fresh  kinds  of  pleasure." 

Fun.     Fun  and  pleasure.  .  .  . 

He  said  with  a  desperate  effort,  and  the  words 
rang  false  even  while  he  spoke : 

"  One  day,  princess,  I  would  like  to  give  you 
notions  of  another  kind  of  pleasure.  That  is 
what  I  came  for." 

"Assuredly!     Christian  notions,  you  mean? 


THEY  WENT  137 

If  all  Christians  were  like  you,  there  would  not 
be  much  amiss  with  them.  And  if  you  could 
tell  me  how  to  make  those  walls  of  one  tint  in 
such  a  manner  that  their  colour  should  never 
fade  —  ah,  Kenwyn,  if  you  could  tell  me  that,  I 
might  well  become  a  Christian  like  you." 

"  I  know  nothing  of  colours.  I  can  only 
preach/7  he  said  in  an  almost  dejected  tone. 

"  Then  preach  to  me !  Let  me  listen  to  your 
words  while  the  sun  goes  down,  for  your  voice 
is  softer  than  you  think.  You  are  altogether 
passable,  my  friend.  I  like  your  black  curly 
hair  and  those  blue  eyes,  so  tender  and  pleading. 
You  are  not  like  me.  You  are  a  dreamer,  Ken- 
wyn; a  strong  dreamer,  a  weak  man.  I  am  of 
the  other  kind.  I  never  dream  —  hardly  ever," 
she  added,  while  her  thoughts  flitted  dragon- 
wards  awhile.  "  Tell  me,  how  many  women  have 
already^  fooled  you?  " 

"  It  was  a  woman,  my  lady,  who  wrought  a 
miracle  and  led  me  into  the  path  of  righteous- 
ness." 

"  I  warrant  she  was  ugly." 

Kenwyn  said  nothing. 

"  Was  she?  " 

"  Her  soul  was  fair." 

"  No  doubt.  .  .  .  See !  "  she  went  on.  "  There 
is  not  much  fun  or  pleasure  in  yonder  building. 
It  is  the  old  girls'  college.  The  druidess  used 


138  THEY  WENT 

to  keep  her  school  there  till  she  realized,  one 
day,  that  the  air  of  this  town  and  the  customs 
of  its  citizens  were  not  wholesome  for  growing 
children,  and  took  them  off  to  her  island.  A 
mildewy  place.  That  Eoman  built  it.  We  use  it 
as  a  kind  of  armoury  nowadays.  Old  times! 
Let  us  glance  within." 

Here,  in  those  vaulted  chambers,  were  stored 
weapons  and  martial  ornaments  of  every  shape, 
and  standards  picturing  horse  and  boar  and 
other  beasts  —  the  accoutrements  of  an  entire 
army.  They  lay  about  haphazard,  mouldering  in 
the  damp  sea  air.  The  bronze  spears  and  buck- 
lers and  armlets  were  encrusted  with  bright  ver- 
digris ;  stacks  of  iron  swords  had  melted  into  one 
another  under  a  thick  coating  of  rust.  In  the 
largest  of  these  rooms,  which  had  once  been  the 
girls'  Hall  of  Assembly,  stood  an  array  of  war- 
chariots,  their  wheels  rotting  from  beneath  them, 
and  delicate  leather-work  crumbling  to  earth. 
Old  times!  All  these  military  things,  she  de- 
clared, would  never  be  used  again.  Let  them 
rot  and  rust!  There  was  no  fighting  done. 
Peace  at  any  price  was  the  watchword  nowadays. 

The  preacher  was  troubled  at  this  speech. 

"We  Irish  fight,"  he  said,  "and  gladly  lay 
down  our  lives.  There  are  no  such  cowards  in 
our  country." 

"  I  am  not  surprised. '   You  live  so  miserably ! 


THEY  WENT  139 

Anybody  can  be  brave  in  a  land  like  yours.  It 
is  better  to  suffer  a  thousand  deaths  than  to 
endure  such  a  state  of  affairs.  A  poor  man  is 
ever  ready  to  die;  he  has  nothing  to  lose.  The 
coward  is  he  who  finds  life  worth  living.  There 
is  pleasure  on  earth,  Kenwyn.  Why  miss  it?  " 

Troublesome  neighbours,  she  continued,  were 
compensated  or  set  against  each  other.  The  city 
was  rich  enough  for  everybody.  Trade  was 
good;  commerce  thriving.  In  olden  days  it  was 
fashionable  and  even  honourable  to  wreck  ships ; 
to  lure  them  on  the  rocks  by  means  of  false 
lights,  and  then  plunder  the  sailormen.  Such  a 
system  would  soon  have  scared  away  merchants, 
and  therefore  she  —  that  is,  her  father  —  had 
stopped  the  mischief.  The  corporation  of  the 
pilots  could  also  now  be  relied  upon.  For  those 
pilots,  she  said,  were  at  first  unsatisfactory ;  they 
drank  too  much,  just  as  if  they  were  ordinary 
men,  and  sometimes  lost  the  vessels  they  were 
paid  to  conduct  landwards,  since  it  was  a  dan- 
gerous sea  to  navigate,  the  entrance  to  the  town 
being  full  of  reefs.  She  —  her  father  —  soon 
put  an  end  to  that  scandal. 

"  Would  you  like  to  inspect  the  last  pilot  who 
drank  too  much?  " 

«  Willingly." 

"  He  is  only  a  few  paces  from  here,  on  the 
embankment.  He  has  been  there  for  some  little 


140  THEY  WENT 

time.  .  .  .  Observe  him,"  she  said,  as  they 
reached  the  spot.  "  I  have  no  tolerance  for 
drunkards." 

The  man  had  been  crucified,  and  his  whiten- 
ing bones  and  poor  relics  of  flesh  were  held  to 
the  cross  by  means  of  a  chain.  There  he  hung, 
facing  the  ocean  at  the  harbour  entrance,  where 
every  ship  that  sailed  into  that  narrow  sluice- 
gate must  needs  pass  under  his  shadow. 

"  We  have  been  obliged  to  chain  him  up,  you 
see,  for  fear  of  his  running  away  and  taking  to 
his  old  bad  habits  again.  There  he  will  stay  so 
long  as  I  live,  an  encouragement  to  honest 
traders.  I  know  what  I  want  —  my  father  does. 
This  town,  Kenwyn,  has  a  reputation  to  keep  up. 
We  are  not  Irishmen  here,  poverty-stricken  and 
turbulent  and " 

"  And  brave." 

"  And  brave !  And  passable  into  the  bargain," 
she  added  with  a  smile. 

Crowds  of  citizens  moved  about  this  embank- 
ment in  the  gloaming,  or  rested  on  its  rampart 
of  stone.  Nobody  took  notice  of  them ;  it  was  a 
cosmopolitan  place.  The  princess  discerned 
Theophilus,  the  Greek  merchant,  reclining  on  a 
rock  down  below.  He  contrived,  as  she  passed, 
to  turn  his  back  upon  her.  She  was  not  sur- 
prised ;  "  another  little  act  of  rudeness,"  she  con- 


THEY  WENT  141 

eluded.  What  did  surprise  her  was  that  the 
man  was  not  alone,  but  discoursing  with  three 
or  four  of  her  dwarfs  in  a  playful  fashion,  as  a 
father  might  dally  with  his  children ;  they,  on  the 
other  hand,  seemed  to  be  full  of  deep  respect 
towards  him.  Were  these  the  "  certain  friends  " 
he  had  promised  to  meet?  She  wondered  how  he 
had  made  their  acquaintance,  and  what  he  could 
possibly  want  with  those  little  people  who,  as  a 
rule,  kept  so  strictly  to  themselves.  She  thought 
of  calling  down  to  interrupt  the  talk  and  dis- 
cover its  meaning.  No!  The  Christian's  com- 
pany was  more  to  her  taste  just  then. 

She  forgot  the  incident. 

At  their  back  lay  the  city.  Night-life  was 
already  beginning  in  that  cup-shaped  hollow. 
Torches  blazed  into  the  sky,  and  a  confused 
murmur  of  song  and  merriment  rose  up  from 
the  streets.  The  reek  of  taverns-  mingled  with 
a  harsh  odour  of  slime  and  sea-wrack  left  un- 
covered by  the  out-gone  tide. 

It  was  an  hour  of  calm,  of  happy  oblivion. 
Kenwyn,  the  dreamer,  succumbed  to  its  witch- 
ery. His  bitter  reflections  concerning  the  prin- 
cess had  faded  away  for  the  moment ;  he  thought 
only  of  her  beauty.  They  were  friends,  it 
seemed;  drawn  towards  each  other,  and  maybe 
never  to  be  parted  —  their  hearts  were  striving 


142  THEY  WENT 

to  merge  together.  Often,  later  on,  he  recalled 
il^ith  a  pang  that  brief  spell  of  untroubled  sweet- 
ness which  he  would  fain  have  held  fast  for  ever. 

"  Pleasant  here,"  she  said. 

"  Pleasant.'' 

They  looked  seaward,  where  gleams  of  light 
still  flickered  about  the  firmament.  Before 
them,  dappled  with  stranded  fishing  boats,  lay 
an  expanse  of  ooze  and  mud ;  it  shone  like  molten 
ore.  The  ocean  beyond  was  flecked  with  islets 
of  many  shapes,  some  of  them  mere  fragments 
of  rock  submerged  daily  under  the  inrushing 
element ;  others  so  spacious  that  families  of  hum- 
ble folk  dwelt  on  them  all  the  year  round,  herd- 
ing cattle  and  sheep  on  their  grassy  slopes.  She 
pointed  out  the  Sacred  Rock  of  Manthis,  partly 
hidden  by  another  island  which  lay  in  the  fore- 
ground. A  poor  sterile  place,  she  said,  with  a 
small  lake  and  pasturage  for  a  few  cows.  The 
druidess  and  her  girls  had  done  wonders  in  mak- 
ing it  habitable.  The  college  itself  lay  secluded 
in  a  stony  vale 

"  But  from  that  corner  of  her  domain  Manthis 
can  always  see  the  city.  It  is  where  her  garden 
lies,  and  where  she  loves  to  rest  on  her  favourite 
seat  overlooking  the  sea.  Perhaps  she  is  watch- 
ing us  now." 

"  She  could  never  see  so  far." 


THEY  WENT  143 

"  Who  knows?  And  why  are  the  beacons  not 
lighted?  "  A  cloud  settled  on  her  face.  Lights 
were  kindled  on  two  of  those  outer  rocks,  she  ex- 
plained, for  the  security  of  traders.  "  They 
ought  to  be  aflame  at  this  hour.  What  are  those 
men  about?  " 

While  she  yet  spoke,  an  angry  red  fire  broke 
out  far  away;  it  seemed  to  leap  from  the  water. 
The  second  one  followed. 

"  Commerce  is  safe,"  she  said.     "  All  is  well." 

"  Strange,"  remarked  the  preacher,  "  that  this 
sea,  now  so  distant,  wrill  be  back  again  in  a  short 
while,  gnawing  at  your  foundations.  You  must 
have  a  sense,  here,  of  ever-present  menace. 
There  is  no  escaping  from  the  sea." 

"  It  does  not  trouble  me  greatly.  Look !"  she 
exclaimed.  "  I  perceive  a  little  boat  with  white 
sails,  ever  so  far  off.  It  is  making  for  the  north. 
Do  you  see  it,  out  yonder?  Not  our  build. 
Some  coasting  vessel,  if  I  am  not  mistaken." 

The  princess  was  mistaken. 

The  boat  which  left  with  the  out-going  tide 
bore  homewards  one  of  Aithryn's  numerous  spies 
who  had  lived  in  the  city  for  a  month  or  more, 
garnering  information.  He  was  now  returning 
to  his  master  with  queer  tales  about  the  town  and 
about  the  doings  of  a  certain  young  lady  in  re- 
gard to  whom  Aithryn  —  nineteen  years  older, 


144  THEY  WENT 

now,  than  when  he  himself  set  foot  on  that  em- 
bankment —  had  begun  to  feel  a  kind  of  paternal 
tenderness  and  anxiety. 
Queer  tales.  .  .  . 


PART  II 

CHAPTEE  XI 

SO  wonderful  a  rainbow,  they  all  declared, 
had  never  yet  been  seen. 
It  hung  over  the  city  in  the  tepid  sky, 
among  low  and  luminous  mists,  drenching  all 
things  in  a  halo  of  beauty.  There  it  hovered, 
and  its  splendour  refused  to  wane.  The  place 
was  glorified,  transfigured.  Men  came  forth 
from  their  houses  to  view  the  marvel;  business 
was  at  a  standstill;  groups  of  children  were 
laughing  and  dancing  in  its  radiance.  Had  it 
come  to  stay? 

"  Now  I  know,"  thought  the  princess  as,  hud- 
dled in  a  thick  cloak,  she  walked  unattended  to 
the  workshop  of  Lelian  the  armourer.  "  Now  I 
know !  This  is  how  my  town  should  look.  This 
rainbow  is  my  dream.  If  it  would  only  last  for 
ever!  " 

The  old  man  was  standing  at  his  house- 
entrance  gazing,  like  all  the  rest,  at  the  spectacle 
overhead. 

"  The  mask,  Lelian.     And  greeting." 

"  It  is  finished,  my  lady,  according  to  your  in- 

145 


146  THEY  WENT 

structions.     A  somewhat  ghastly  contrivance." 

"  Let  me  see " 

She  was  tired  of  poisons. 

Tired,  just  then,  of  everything ;  and  filled  with 
an  unwonted  sense  of  trouble  and  insecurity. 
She  felt  herself  driven  fatefully  along,  she  knew 
not  whither.  She  had  lately  seen  much  of  Ken- 
wyn,  whose  earnest  but  incoherent  phrases  had 
touched  her  heart,  if  not  her  head.  They  made 
her  look  within.  Then  she  looked  without  again. 
This  fair  city,  her  creation:  would  she  ever  be 
able  to  complete  the  task  she  set  herself?  Never 
had  she  desired  so  ardently  to  impress  her  own 
imaginings  upon  it,  and  never  felt  more  helpless, 
unbefriended,  almost  menaced. 

Tales  were  rife,  queer  tales ;  she  had  known  it 
for  long.  Men  wondered  how  he,  and  he,  had 
met  his  end.  They  spoke  in  whispers  of  her 
tower  and  of  what  happened  there  in  the  murky 
light  of  dawn,  when  sea-swallows  begin  to  skim 
and  circle  over  the  waves.  They  fabled  of  a 
black  cavalier,  her  ghostly  attendant,  who  threw 
the  bodies  of  the  victims  into  some  foaming  whirl- 
pool near  at  hand ;  or  bore  them  further  afield 
into  a  dank  forest  region,  where  a  brown  stream- 
let dashes  itself  to  spray  and  glides  sullenly  into 
the  depths  of  the  earth,  amid  royal  ferns  and 
boulders  hoary  with  moss.  The  wailings  of 
these  poor  folk,  they  vowed,  could  still  be  heard. 


THEY  WENT  147 

Queer  tales !  She  gleaned  them  herself  from  the 
lips  of  revellers  at  her  tower  when,  overcome  with 
wine,  they  poured  into  her  ears  the  chatter  of 
the  town.  She  used  to  think : 

"  That  shows  what  men  will  believe.  Is  there 
not  the  Great  Drain,  that  masterpiece  of  engi- 
neering, which  tells  no  tales?  " 

She  cared  little  about  gossip,  though  latterly 
—  ever  since  the  death  of  Ormidius  Limpidus  — 
she  had  grown  more  wary. 

For  the  Roman  likewise  vanished  mysteri- 
ously, and  his  occultation  caused  more  than  the 
common  amount  of  scandal.  It  was  not  that 
this  was  the  first  and  unique  case  of  an  elderly 
man  disappearing  —  a  man  indeed  well  stricken 
in  years;  the  engineer  happened  to  be  a  citizen, 
and  a  person  of  renown.  She  had  laughed,  at  the 
time.  She  was  glad  to  be  rid  of  that  tiresome 
old  woman-lover.  He  was  in  her  way.  True, 
she  learnt  a  good  deal  from  his  teaching;  she 
made  him  toil  outrageously  to  satisfy  her  whims. 
He  used  to  say :  "  You  are  a  nail  in  my  coffin,  for 
all  your  sweet  eyes."  But  his  work  was  done. 
She  had  exhausted  or  outgrown  his  learning,  and 
developed  tastes  of  her  own;  this  Roman,  she 
decided,  had  his  limitations  like  everybody  else. 
Moreover,  he  knew  too  much.  Had  he  not  helped 
to  build  her  residence?  Did  he  not  know  its 
secret?  And  always  interfering!  A  wave  of 


148  THEY  WENT 

indignant  rage  swept  over  her  when,  one  day, 
he  actually  presumed  to  override  her  opinion  in 
the  matter  of  a  certain  cornice  which  she  had 
designed  for  her  tower,  and  otherwise  to  treat  her 
as  if  she  were  an  ignorant  child.  It  was  a  com- 
plete misunderstanding. 

"  It  should  be  thus,  my  fascinating  young  lady ; 
thus,  and  not  otherwise.  I  have  built  more 
cornices  than  you  will  ever  live  to  see.  Long 
years  before  you  were  born,  I  studied  Licinius  on 
stucco-decoration,  and  Jupiter  only  knows  how 
many  more  of  them,  and  got  them  all  by  heart. 
Yes,  yes!  Permit  me,  an  old  man  and  a  friend 
of  your  venerated  father's  —  permit  me  to  ob- 
serve that  your  notions  are  often  in  hopeless  dis- 
accord with  the  principles  of  true  art.  There  is 
a  curiously  barbaric  strain  —  well  no  matter. 
So  much  is  certain :  you  have  still  something  to 
learn.  Yes,  yes!  Even  now  there  is  room  for 
improvement  inside  that  pretty  little  head  of 
yours." 

She  thought:  Yes,  yes!  Much  to  learn!  We 
must  learn,  first  and  foremost,  whether  there  be 
room  for  an  engineer  inside  that  pretty  little 
masterpiece  of  his.  You  are  easily  caught,  my 
friend.  Yes,  yes. 

Late  in  the  night  Harr6  announced,  as  usual 
that  a  stranger  craved  admittance  to  her  tower. 
"  The  Roman  architect,  I  think." 


THEY  WENT  149 

" Indeed ?"  she  said,  as  usual.  "Now  go  to 
bed,  Harre."  And  the  devoted  blue  innocent, 
as  usual,  tripped  off. 

As  usual  —  ah,  well ! 

He  went. 

There  was  an  end  to  that  misunderstanding. 

And  yet  the  cornice,  her  cornice  —  the 
wretched  contrivance  never  looked  well.  It 
was  an  unsatisfactory  ornament  to  the  tower 
facade;  something  was  wrong  with  its  propor- 
tions. Who  would  now  help  her? 

The  dwarfs?  They  were  useless  for  stone- 
work, useless  for  painting  or  inlaying  or  model- 
ling in  plaster,  or  for  anything  except  metals; 
and  it  seemed  as  if  from  them,  too,  she  had 
learnt  all  there  was  to  learn. 

Kenwyn,  her  new  friend!  His  gentle  but 
ardent  figure  arose  before  her  mind's  eye  —  what 
did  he  know  of  such  things?  Could  he  design 
a  cornice?  Had  he  not  spoken  with  frank  dis- 
approval of  her  worldly  notions  of  beauty  and 
gone  so  far  as  to  declare  that  this  city  should  be 
razed  to  the  ground,  telling  her,  at  the  same 
time,  of  another  kind  of  beauty  and  another  city, 
all  paved  with  gold  and  jasper;  a  pleasant  place, 
maybe,  but  rather  far  away? 

Meanwhile,  as  these  thoughts  and  memories 
flitted  through  her  brain,  the  princess  was  care- 
fully testing  the  mask.  Satisfied  with  its 


150  THEY  WENT 

mechanism,  she  placed  it  beneath  her  mantle. 

Who  would  be  the  first,  she  wondered? 

"Kenwyn,  the  Christian  preacher "  she 

began. 

The  armourer  looked  up.  He  too  had  been 
lost  in  a  brief  reverie.  Ever  since  the  death  of 
that  first  Christian  missionary  he  had  grown 
thoughtful,  and  even  fearful,  for  he  belonged  to 
the  school  of  those  who  believe  in  omens  and 
entrails.  He  remembered  that  preacher's  last 
moments;  his  divinely  radiant  glance  and  those 
dim  words  about  retribution  from  the  sea.  Like 
certain  other  citizens,  he  saw  danger  looming 
ahead  —  a  watery  danger  which  he  connected, 
vaguely,  with  the  personality  of  the  charming 
young  lady  at  his  side.  Her  presence  made  him 
feel  uneasy,  nowadays.  She  said: 

"  Kenwyn,  the  Christian  preacher,  declares  the 
rainbow  to  have  been  set  in  the  sky  by  the  All- 
Highest  as  a  sign  that  there  shall  be  no  more 
floods  on  earth." 

"Perhaps  you  misinterpret  some  part  of  his 
doctrine." 

"  So  Kenwyn  says.  Our  town,  then,  is  safe 
from  the  sea." 

"  Likely  enough.  And  the  first  one,  that 
frantic  ancient,  prophesied  it  should  be  swept 
away.  These  Christians  will  fetch  anything  you 
please  out  of  their  holy  books.  They  are  not  to 


THEY  WENT  151 

be  taken  seriously.  Let  the  good  Mother  Man- 
this  convince  your  Kenwyn  as  she  did  the  last." 

"  Always  the  same,  Lelian !  " 

"  Always  the  same.  Adore  the  gods,  be  brave, 
and  do  no  harm.  What  more  do  you  want?  " 

"  What  more?  If  you  knew  Lelian,  how  much 
more  I  wanted,  not  for  myself,  but  only  for  this 
city !  I  want  the  blue  of  Heaven  and  glittering 
stars  to  play  with,  and  all  the  silvery  beams 
of  moonlight.  Have  you  no  eyes,  man,  to  see 
how  much  there  is  still  amiss?  " 

"  Your  Christian,  I  take  it,  will  promise  to 
supply  these  things." 

"  You  are  unfair  to  him.  He  has  a  kindly  face, 
and  means  well." 

"  Foolish  men,  my  lady,  always  mean  well. 
As  to  his  face,  I  have  not  yet  beheld  it.  But 
another  stranger  came  here  yesterday,  a  Greek 
merchant  with  whom  I  once  had  a  few  words  at 
the  palace.  He  wished  to  inspect  these  old 
weapons  of  mine.  He  sat  on  this  bench  and 
talked  awhile.  A  lame  man,  and  ugly;  but 
shrewd " 

"  And  impolite,"  added  the  princess,  who  rec- 
ognized Theophilus  from  this  description.  She 
had  almost  forgotten  his  existence,  not  having 
met  him  since  that  day  at  the  dragon's  den. 
Now  she  said: 

"I  thought  he  had  left  the  town.     Did  he 


152  THEY  WENT 

speak  about  the  art  of  shattering  metal  into  fine 
flakes  and  filling  them  with  colour  like  a  but- 
terfly's wing?  " 

"  Not  a  word  of  that." 

"  Not  a  word?  " 

"  Not  a  word.  But  he  told  me  many  things 
I  had  never  heard  before,  even  about  my  own 
work.  And  he  knows  much  of  our  old  customs 
and  beliefs ;  he  spoke  of  mankind,  of  liberty  and 
of  light,  those  three  primordial  existences,  and 
when  he  came  to  explain  what  was  truly  meant 
by  that  word  light  —  why  then,  princess,  I 
thought  I  was  listening  to  the  wisest  of  our 
druids.  It  was  light  indeed !  I  have  not  heard 
such  good  talk  for  many  long  days.  And  of 
other  matters  too.  This  ancient  ax  of  stone 
which  I  dug  myself  out  of  the  earth :  he  said  it 
was  made  not  here,  but  in  the  mountains  of 
Khsetia  far  away.  And  those  swords,  those  bent 
swords  which  we  find  in  tombs,  he  said  .  .  .  all 
this,  my  lady,  is  of  no  account  to  you." 

The  princess  in  truth  had  small  use  for  rusty 
blades,  though  she  would  doubtless  have  been 
interested  in  the  original  processes  of  their  man- 
ufacture. Wishful  to  please  the  old  man,  she 
observed : 

"  Tell  me  about  them,  Lelian.  What  did  he 
say?" 


THEY  WENT  153 

«* 

"  Men  used  to  believe  that  those  swords  were 
bent  double  in  the  fight  by  reason  of  their  bad 
composition.  In  this  I  always  thought  they  were 
wrong,  since  our  ancestors  were  crafty  folks ;  be 
sure  they  understood  the  art  of  forging  and  tem- 
pering blades  as  well  as  any  one  who  now  lives. 
And  that  is  what  the  Greek  told  me.  He  said 
that  such  weapons  had  not  been  damaged  in  the 
battle  at  all,  but  purposely  bent,  as  a  kind  of 
farewell  rite,  and  then  reverently  laid  in  the 
tomb  beside  that  dead  warrior  whose  hand  should 
wield  them  no  more.  Some  of  those  swords,  he 
told  me,  were  even  made  of  two  kinds  of  iron 
cunningly  welded  together;  the  central  part  of 
sinewy  material,  and  the  edge  itself  of  softer 
but  more  trenchant  stuff,  which  was  then  beaten 
sharp  as  a  razor  and  could  be  hammered  straight 
again  after  every  fight.  I  always  thought  so! 
They  knew,  the  old  ones  —  they  knew!  And 
these  arrow-heads,  he  declared,  were  doubtless 
once  tipped  with  limeum  or  white  hellebore.  A 
poor  concoction,  he  called  it.  Even  trychnon 
would  be  better,  and  it  grew  everywhere!  He 
thought  a  clever  young  lady  like  the  princess 
might  invent  some  really  potent  poison,  if  we 
people  ever  came  to  fighting  again.  It  does  not 
look  much  like  it,"  he  added  regretfully. 

Poison.         .  What  did  this  Greek  know? 


154  THEY  WENT 

"  Strange !"  she  now  said.  "  I  have  seen  that 
man's  face  before.  I  must  have  dreamt  about 
him  long  ago,  when  I  was  a  little  child." 

"  It  is  not  a  handsome  face,  my  lady.  I  would 
like  you  to  have  fairer  visions  at  night." 

"I  often  dream  ugly  things,"  she  replied,  and 
her  face  grew  slightly  harder.  "  Tell  me  more, 
Lelian.  Tell  me  exactly,  from  beginning  to  end." 

The  old  man  scratched  his  grey  hairs  thought- 
fully. 

"  Let  me  see.  .  .  .  We  talked  about  the  city. 
He  said  it  was  full  of  incongruous  notions  picked 
up  here  and  there.  All  colour,  no  shape.  More 
strange  than  beautiful.  A  gay  place,  but  some- 
what disordered  and  with  a  curious  barbaric 
strain  running  through  it.  A  lack  of  reverence, 
he  said.  As  to  the  dwarfs  —  they  had  done  won- 
ders. And  so  they  have,  my  lady!  Those  mir- 
rors, especially,  they  sometimes  make  me  feel 
almost  afraid,  as  if " 

"  Bother  the  mirrors.     What  more?  " 

"  He  spoke  of  those  walls  tinted  in  one  shade, 
which  was  always  being  effaced  by  the  sea  air; 
they  looked  unsightly.  He  thought  a  clever 
young  lady  like  the  princess " 

"Well?" 

"  Might  have  hit  upon  the  method  of  mixing 
the  paint  with  the  plaster  ere  it  is  laid  on.  It 
would  then  last  as  long  as  the  plaster  itself.  A 


THEY  WENT  155 

costly  plan,  he  said,  but  no  lover  of  beauty  heeds 
the  price.  Those  were  his  words.  No  lover  of 
beauty  heeds  the  price.  See!  That  wondrous 
rainbow  has  melted  away." 

"  Let  it  melt ! "  she  exclaimed  in  an  access 
of  delight.  "  What  do  we  want  with  rainbows, 
now  that  my  colours  will  endure?  He  is  right, 
Lelian.  To  think  that  all  these  years  I  have 
racked  my  brain,  and  never  discovered  that  sim- 
ple device.  If  only  I  could  now  hold  fast  those 
painted  figures  of  men  on  horseback  and  other 
scenes ! " 

"  Ay,  a  shrewd  man.  He  seems  to  have  trav- 
elled far  and  wide.  I  could  not  help  laughing 
when  he  said  you  ought  to  have  been  born  a 
boy." 

"  He  is  right.  Many  a  time  have  I  said  the 
same.  And  what  think  you,  Lelian?  Ought  I 
to  be  what  I  am?" 

The  armourer  hesitated  awhile.  He  was  at  a 
loss  how  to  answer  this  straightforward  and  em- 
barrassing question.  Finally  he  remarked: 

"  We  have  heard,  ere  now,  of  wilful  girls,  and 
masterful  ones " 

"  I  masterful?  That  may  be  because  I  have 
not  yet  found  my  master." 

Nor  ever  will,  thought  the  old  man;  adding 
aloud : 

"  You    have    been    too   masterful,    my    lady, 


156  THEY  WENT 

with  those  dwarfs.  Forgive  my  frankness !  The 
head-man  came  to  see  me  two  or  three  days  ago. 
He  is  poorly.  I  conjecture  you  have  been  over- 
working him.  They  are  frail,  delicate  folk." 

It  was  true.  Whoever  came  in  contact  with 
the  princess  and  could  be  turned  to  account  was 
sure  to  pay  the  price  sooner  or  later.  She  made 
them  do  things  for  her.  She  made  them  toil 
and  moil.  Ever  dissatisfied  with  results,  ever 
yearning  for  new  forms  of  artistic  beauty,  she 
had  a  gift  of  wearing  her  subordinates  "  to  the 
bone,"  as  they  said. 

"  Poorly,"  she  echoed.     "  I  know." 

"Worse  than  poorly.  His  wits  seem  to  have 
given  way  under  the  strain.  He  cackled  and 
squeaked  about  a  screw,  a  screw  in  his  head. 
6  Fix  it  tighter,  Lelian.  You  are  the  king's  ar- 
mourer. You  do  these  things.  It  rattles  and 
rattles  and  rattles  and  rattles.  Not  a  word  of 
this !  Fix  it  fast,  that  I  may  do  my  work.  We 
have  a  reputation  to  keep  up,  and  I  would  not  let 
the  princess  blame  me.  Fix  it,  fix  it,  fix  it,  fix 
it '" 

"  I  have  often  heard  him  babbling  about  that 
screw.  What  does  he  mean?  " 

"  Belen  alone  knows  what  he  means.  A  nerv- 
ous little  fellow,  my  lady,  and  easily  dislocated. 
I  fear  he  is  done  for.  How  will  you  proceed 
with  the  rest  of  them?  For  they  are  useless 


THEY  WENT  157 

without  Mm.  He  has  the  brains  of  the  whole 
tribe." 

"  He  had,  good  Lelian." 

Mountain  folk!  She  was  not  satisfied  with 
their  latest  efforts.  Her  aspirations  had  out- 
grown their  talents.  Their  ideas  were  small, 
like  their  bodies.  She  was  tired  of  their  metal- 
tricks,  even  as,  long  before,  she  grew  tired  of  the 
stone-tricks  of  Ormidius  Limpidus.  She  was 
more  in  the  mood  for  painting.  .  .  . 

And  now  the  head-man  had  gone  daft. 

"  That  settles  it,"  she  thought,  as  she  rose  to 
depart.  "  I  disapprove  of  them.  Kenwyn  dis- 
approves of  them.  And  so,  by  the  way,  does  my 
dear  papa.  Bother  those  dwarfs!  They  must 
go/' 


CHAPTER  XII 

YET  how  glad  she  had  been  when  they  sud- 
denly appeared  in  the  town,  dropped 
from  the  clouds,  or  sent  hither  by  some 
kindly  god  who  took  pity  on  her  state  at  the  very 
moment  when  that  troublesome  old  engineer  was 
beginning  to  grow  not  only  useless,  but  posi- 
tively intolerable.  So  they  came,  and  replen- 
ished her  mind  with  fresh  ideas.  And  now  she 
had  exhausted  the  dwarfs,  even  as  she  exhausted 
the  Roman.  Who  would  be  the  next  helper? 
When  would  he  arrive?  And  from  what  quar- 
ter of  the  sky? 

For  the  dwarfs  had  come  from  far,  far  away. 
They  used  to  live  in  the  territory  of  the  remote 
Alloquisti.  There,  amid  a  region  of  cold  stand- 
ing stones,  they  dwelt  and  suffered,  having  been 
hunted  out  of  their  earlier  homesteads  by  some 
heartless  Christian  bishop  who,  because  thqy 
worked  in  metal,  called  them  Teuz  and  Poulpi- 
kans  and  Associates  of  the  Evil  One,  and  forbade 
his  flock  to  have  any  intercourse  with  them. 
Among  those  blue  savages  they  lived  miserably, 
having  little  work  to  do.  It  was  long  since  they 
had  danced  or  sung.  They  were  fast  unlearning 

158 


THEY  WENT  159 

their  old  arts  and  accomplishments.  "  We  are 
running  to  seed,  like  thistles  of  last  autumn," 
they  said  among  each  other.  Some  of  the 
meeker  ones  sat  at  home,  and  cried  their  eyes 
out. 

Every  full  moon  they  used  to  hold  a  General 
Council  on  the  summit  of  one  of  those  grisly  dol- 
men that  strewed  the  sad  landscape.  It  was  on 
the  last  of  these  occasions,  when  they  had  just 
taken  their  seats  to  discuss  the  question :  "  How 
life  is  to  be  endured  any  longer,"  that  they  sud- 
denly started  to  their  feet  again,  with  shrieks 
of  pain  and  anguish.  The  rock  was  discovered 
to  be  burning  hot.  Their  little  backs  were 
badly  scorched. 

"  Oh,  wicked  world !  "  they  cried ;  "  that  set- 
tles it " —  and  forthwith  departed  moodily  in 
search  of  some  happier  abode.  Chance  took 
them,  after  long  and  weary  wanderings,  to  the 
neighbourhood  of  this  town,  where  the  princess, 
ever  alert  and  anxious  to  pick  up  new  notions, 
soon  heard  of  their  arrival  and  summoned  the 
head-man  to  her  presence.  He  was  a  bright 
fellow.  He  told  of  their  peculiar  aptitudes  — 
told  her,  in  fact,  the  whole  story  from  beginning 
to  end,  not  omitting  that  incident  of  the  burnt 
dolmen.  It  hurt  very  much,  he  said. 

"  And  who  scorched  your  little  backs?  "  she 
enquired  compassionately. 


160  THEY  WENT 

"  A  horrid  boy.  .  .  ." 

It  was  the  blue  pest. 

This  naked  young  savage  knew  all  about  the 
dwarfs  and  their  evening  assemblies  every  month, 
for  he  used  to  herd  his  father's  pigs  at  the  same 
spot,  among  the  same  circles  and  avenues  of 
upright  boulders.  Dull  work,  guarding  those 
stolid,  grunting  beasts;  but  Harre  was  still  too 
small  to  be  entrusted  with  the  goad  for  cattle. 
With  the  pigs  he  remained,  and  received  from 
his  parents  more  beating  than  bread  —  that 
being  the  local  method  of  rearing  children.  And 
one  day  of  full  moon,  when  the  little  lad  was 
more  than  usually  bored  with  singing  and 
whistling,  and  making  daisy-chains  and  catching 
frogs  and  throwing  stones  at  the  yellow-ham- 
mers, he  bethought  him  of  something  new.  He 
covered  the  dwarfs'  dolmen  with  many  handfuls 
of  dry  bracken  and  gorse,  and  then  set  fire  to 
them.  The  mass  blazed  lustily  while  he  heaped 
on  more  and  more.  Just  before  summoning  his 
pigs  to  their  homeward  march  with  his  leaden 
trumpet,  he  carefully  brushed  away  every  trace 
of  ashes.  The  rock  was  bare  as  before;  bare 
and  burning  hot.  Laughing,  he  thought: 

"  I  wonder  what  those  people  will  do  when 
they  come  to  sit  down.  They  will  perhaps  get 
up  again.  .  .  ." 

"  We  believe  he  did  it  for  fun,"  added  the  head- 


THEY  WENT  161 

man  bitterly.  "  Some  boys  have  dreadful  no- 
tions of  fun." 

The  princess  liked  such  notions  of  fun;  they 
coincided  with  her  own.  It  struck  her  that  a 
lively  child  of  this  kind,  a  foreigner  to  the  town, 
might  be  of  use  for  certain  purposes  of  her  own. 

"  Catch  him  for  me,"  she  said.  "  Catch  him, 
and  bring  him  hither.  Then  I  will  take  your 
whole  tribe  into  my  service." 

The  head-man  vowed  he  remembered  the  tracks 
and  straightway  volunteered  to  fetch  Harr6, 
bearing,  in  exchange  for  him,  a  couple  of  rosy 
sea-shells  (the  Alloquisti  were  inland  folks). 
The  bargain  was  concluded  in  due  course,  and 
Harr6  departed  in  the  dwarf's  company  with  a 
cask  of  blue  paint,  his  only  luggage,  slung  over 
his  shoulder.  "  Don't  forget  your  clothes,  my 
little  man,"  his  mother  said  gravely,  handing 
him  the  preparation.  "  Never  deny  your  race 
among  strangers.  You  have  now  a  reputation 
to  keep  up."  For  two  and  a  half  moons  they 
tramped  over  hills  and  bogs  and  finally  arrived 
at  the  king's  palace  where,  amid  that  crowd  of 
courtiers  and  noble  dames,  Harr6  lost  no  time  in 
living  up  to  the  parental  standard  and  display- 
ing the  Alloquistian  blood  that  flowed  in  his 
veins.  He  treated  them  like  dirt,  glaring  fero- 
ciously at  everybody  from  the  old  monarch  down- 
wards; he  bit  and  scratched  like  a  demon  when 


162  THEY  WENT 

they  tried  to  make  him  change  his  native  cos- 
tume into  something  more  appropriate  to  the 
surroundings. 

"  Let  him  be,"  said  the  princess.  "  I  like  that 
spirit,  though  I  wish  they  had  dyed  him  some 
other  tint." 

This  is  how  the  blue  pest  came  to  enter  her 
service,  and  his  devotion  was  soon  made  mani- 
fest. He  was  now  far  from  home;  she  was  his 
protectress,  his  only  real  friend  among  all  those 
other  people.  He  followed  and  obeyed.  And 
the  princess,  whose  knowledge  of  human  nature 
was  remarkable  for  one  of  her  tender  years, 
quickly  learnt  to  appreciate  his  merits.  His 
very  forwardness  recommended  him ;  he  was  not 
of  the  thoughtful  or  reserved  kind;  no  girl,  she 
reflected,  would  have  been  quite  so  simple  of 
heart,  so  incurious.  All  too  soon,  she  knew,  she 
would  have  to  find  another  Harre\  It  was  one 
of  many  little  troubles  at  this  period. 

Meanwhile,  good  had  come  of  evil.  The 
tragedy  of  the  scorched  dolmen  proved  a  bless- 
ing in  disguise,  for  it  would  be  hard  to  say  which 
of  the  three  was  made  happiest  by  this  new  state 
of  affairs  —  whether  the  princess,  the  dwarfs, 
or  the  Alloquistian  stranger.  The  lady  was  en- 
raptured with  all  the  things  she  learnt  from 
those  crafty  wanderers ;  the  whole  town,  she  de- 
clared, would  have  to  be  built  anew  and  en- 


THEY  WENT  163 

crusted  with  shimmering1  metal.  Harr6  blos- 
somed like  a  flower  under  her  kindly  treatment, 
he  grew  plump  and  pretty,  and  his  eyes  laughed 
more  mischievously  than  ever;  as  to  the  dwarfs, 
they  too,  at  first,  grew  plump.  At  first  they  lost 
that  scared  and  harassed  look.  They  were  quite 
blissful,  at  first  —  blissful  as  in  the  olden  days 
before  that  meddlesome  Christian  had  poked  his 
nose  into  their  concerns  and  driven  them  out  of 
their  pleasant  haunts  of  long  ago. 

They  could  work  once  more  at  their  beloved 
metals  and  call  to  mind  a  thousand  half-forgot- 
ten artifices,  teaching  the  princess,  among  other 
things,  a  wondrous  method  of  coating  copper 
with  lead  so  as  to  make  it  look  exactly  like  silver 
— a  method  discovered  by  one  of  their  fore- 
fathers, and  kept  a  secret  ever  since  his  day. 
Their  hammerings  and  rivetings  and  furbishings 
could  be  heard  at  all  hours  by  those  who  walked 
abroad  in  the  fields  beyond  the  Eastern  Gate 
where  under  a  grove  of  moist  apple  trees,  the 
young  lady  had  set  apart  a  piece  of  ground  for 
their  village.  Here  they  lived,  cheery,  con- 
tented, ever  industrious.  They  liked  nothing 
better  than  work  —  they  called  it  "play,"  and 
their  gratitude  to  the  benefactress  seemed  to 
know  no  bounds.  A  singular  little  people,  who 
did  everything  differently  from  other  folks. 
They  kept  to  themselves,  with  incomprehensible 


164  THEY  WENT 

rites  of  their  own;  nothing  definite  was  known 
about  their  food  or  habits  save  that  they  danced 
and  sung  and  worked  in  relays,  and  that,  on 
certain  festivals,  they  chanted  a  squeaky  hymn 
to  their  god,  the  Great  Woodlouse,  amid  sacri- 
fices of  mushrooms  and  gold  dust. 

"  Let  them  worship  whom  they  please,"  said 
the  king,  when  this  piece  of  news  was  brought 
to  him,  "  although  I  confess  I  am  not  altogether 
satisfied  with  them  in  other  respects.  Mean- 
while, let  them  worship  whom  they  please! 
What  have  I  often  said?  All  religions  are  free 
here.  I  see  no  harm  in  a  woodlouse.  What 
says  Ando?  " 

"  No  harm  whatever,"  rejoined  the  prophet. 
"  A  woodlouse  is  an  inoffensive  and  unimportant 
worm,  as  every  god  should  be.  The  worship  of 
small  things,  and  of  beasts,  has  the  sanctity  of 
immemorial  custom.  There  is  the  god  Gwion, 
a  mere  dwarf;  there  is  the  pig-god  Moccos  and 
the  bear-god  Artaios  or  Malunos;  the  goddess 
Badb  will  sometimes  take  the  form  of  a  crow; 
there  is  a  rat-god,  the  horse-goddess  Epona  and 
a  worm-god  and  the  scaly  Tarask  and  Boulianus 
and " 

"Enough,  Ando,  enough!  Have  pity  on  my 
old  ears.  We  know  you  have  studied  the  rec- 
ords." 

"  I  have/'  said  Ando. 


THEY  WENT  165 

Soon  the  city,  and  the  lady's  tower  more  espe- 
cially, began  to  put  on  a  fresh  face.  It  shone, 
it  glittered.  Like  Ormidius  Limpidus  of  old, 
the  dwarfs  in  their  turn  wrought  miracles. 
They  knew  their  business.  They  rose  to  the 
occasion.  They  performed  wonders.  They  sur- 
passed themselves. 

The  princess  might  well  have  been  pleased  with 
this  glowing  creation,  the  fruit  of  their  labours. 
So  she  was;  pleased,  not  satisfied;  never  quite 
satisfied.  She  wanted  more  things,  different 
things,  new  things.  Hardly  was  one  piece  of 
work  completed  before  she  felt  inclined  to  dis- 
card it.  Nothing  was  ever  quite  up  to  the  stand- 
ard of  how  it  should  be;  each  effort  of  the 
dwarfs  contained  the  germ  of  some  conception 
hitherto  unrevealed,  and  bore  a  crop  of  fresh 
projects,  which  she  pressed  them  to  realize  with- 
out delay.  "  I  am  learning  all  the  time,"  she 
joyfully  confessed  to  herself,  while  her  execu- 
tants tried  in  vain  to  keep  pace  with  her  com- 
mands and  imaginative  energy.  Labouring  thus, 
like  slaves,  they  began  to  grow  weak  and  emaci- 
ated once  more.  They  lost  appetite;  they  com- 
plained of  headache;  that  old  hunted  look  came 
back  into  their  eyes.  She  was  working  the  sen- 
sitive and  grateful  little  fellows  to  the  bone. 
Yet  they  toiled  on  day  and  night.  Some  of  the 
more  conscientious  ones  actually  pined  away 


166  THEY  WENT 

from  worry  and  long  hours;  they  died,  and  it 
was  rather  fortunate  that  no  one,  save  the  prin- 
cess, found  out  what  the  others  did  to  the  bodies 
of  these,  their  dead  companions. 

The  head-man  in  particular,  on  whom  devolved 
full  responsibility  of  everything,  waxed  almost 
unrecognizable.  That  bright  manner  was  gone; 
those  elf-locks  of  brown  hair  turned  to  white  in 
the  course  of  a  single  month.  His  features  grew 
pale  and  peaky;  he  took  to  wearing  a  cool  rhu- 
barb-leaf on  the  back  of  his  person,  and  con- 
tracted a  kind  of  nervous  twitch  that  pulled  one 
side  of  his  face  all  awry  when  he  talked. 

"  Never  sleep  nowadays,"  he  declared  in 
reply  to  the  friendly  enquiries  of  the  princess. 
"  Ouch !  My  head.  Always  thinking  things. 
Mirrors  and  mirrors  and  mirrors.  Ouch!  Are 
they  going  to  make  me  sit  on  a  hot  stone?  " 

Then  began  that  nonsense  about  the  screw. 
And  all  the  while,  he  never  gave  way  or  even 
complained,  zealous  only  to  please  his  bene- 
factress. 

The  benefactress,  after  she  left  old  Lelian  on 
that  morning  and  had  climbed  to  the  upper- 
most storey  of  her  tower  to  admire  the  view  — 
she  loved  to  contemplate  her  work  —  the  bene- 
factress happened  to  feel  less  pleased  with  the 
dwarfs  than  she  had  ever  yet  felt.  Unambitious, 
unresourcef  ul !  Everlastingly  repeating  the 


THEY  WENT  167 

same  familiar  patterns!  Devoid  of  all  daring 
and  originality!  They  had  their  limitations, 
plainly,  like  the  Roman;  like  everybody  else. 
And  now  little  Yuxo  had  gone  crazy.  Who 
cared!  There  was  nothing  more  to  be  learnt 
from  that  tribe.  Their  work  was  done.  They 
must  go. 

Yet  she  needed  counsel  and  help  —  at  that 
moment,  she  thought,  more  than  ever.  Who 
would  now  impregnate  her  with  fresh  ideas  and 
nourish  her  imagination?  Where  would  she  find 
the  inspirer?  When  would  he  arrive?  And 
from  what  quarter  of  the  sky? 

She  looked  down  upon  the  many-tinted  city  at 
her  feet,  splashed  with  the  recent  shower  and 
throbbing  in  the  light  of  noon.  How  much  re- 
mained to  be  done!  How  full  of  flaws  and  un- 
ripe caprices!  The  place  was  barely  sketched 
out. 

Not  for  the  first  time  a  loneliness  and  de- 
spondency crept  over  her  —  the  loneliness  of  a 
creative  mind  that  looks  around  vainly  for  sym- 
pathy and  encouragement.  It  weighed  upon  her. 
She  was  unbefriended  in  regard  to  those  striv- 
ings which  were  dearest  to  her.  She  saw  her- 
self surrounded  by  creatures  that  knew  nothing 
of  her  nature  —  mean,  ignoble,  unenlightened 
and  indifferent  folks.  They  ate  and  drank. 
They  crawled  about.  They  lived;  they  died. 


168  THEY  WENT 

They  infested  the  earth  and  befouled  it  with  their 
coarse  lives,  following  their  impulses,  their 
"hearts."  All  heart,  no  brain.  How  live  with- 
out brain?  She  wanted  a  world  to  herself,  to 
play  with.  .  .  .  And  everybody  wrong!  What 
rapture  to  be  in  contact  with  some  one  who  un- 
derstood what  she  endured  and  desired,  and 
whose  judgment  she  could  respect;  some  one 
who  was  not  wrong,  but  right. 

"  I  suffer  more,"  she  mused  despairingly, 
"  than  one  who  has  lost  a  limb,  or  a  parent. 
Who  would  believe  it?  They  suffer,  maybe, 
about  other  things.  If  so,  they  comprehend  at 
least  each  other's  joys  and  griefs.  No  one  com- 
prehends mine."  And  she  felt  an  ache  within 
her,  that  old  familiar  ache  at  the  back  of  her 
forehead  which  assailed  her  in  times  of  mental 
anguish  —  something  that  strove  to  break  loose. 

More  than  once,  on  such  occasions,  had  she 
thought  of  summoning  the  devil  to  her  aid. 
Nothing  was  easier:  what  the  princess  did  not 
know  about  incantations  was  not  worth  know- 
ing. Hitherto  she  refrained,  for  an  all-sufficient 
reason.  You  could  abolish  your  other  friends 
and  helpers ;  the  devil  had  a  trick  of  remaining. 
He  chained  you  to  himself  and  turned  you  into 
a  slave.  He  came  to  stay.  He  laughed  at 
poisons  and  Great  Drains. 

There    was    one    thing    which    the    princess 


THEY  WENT  160 

dreaded  more  than  all  else  on  earth  —  to  lose 
her  sovereign  spell.  Never  would  she  forfeit 
that  sense  of  dominion;  none  should  wrest  it 
from  her.  She  would  be  a  law  unto  herself; 
independent  of  all  men;  self-possessed  and  self- 
contained.  She  would  rule,  even  over  parents 
and  lovers.  Such  was  the  law  of  her  nature. 
It  explained  traits  trivial  and  otherwise  —  her 
childish  horror,  for  example,  of  succumbing  to 
the  gentle  persuasion  of  wine,  or  those  blacker 
mysteries  which  the  vaulted  cellars  of  her  tower 
might  have  revealed.  Manthis  the  druidess  was 
therefore  groping  in  a  groove,  and  judging  other 
women  by  herself,  when  she  compared  the  young 
lady  to  Heussa,  Queen  of  Terrors.  For  Manthis 
knew  no  fear.  The  princess  did.  She  feared  to 
lose  her  sway;  to  succumb  to  the  influence  of 
this  one,  or  that  one.  It  was  fear,  craven  fear, 
that  turned  her  into  a  tigress.  None  should  en- 
croach upon  her  will  —  not  even  the  dearest  of 
friends!  For  lovers  were  likely  to  gain  influ- 
ence, to  wax  presumptuous  or  menacing.  They 
must  go.  They  went.  A  reluctance,  a  kind  of 
wistfulness,  would  sometimes  invade  her  mind  on 
such  occasions  .  .  .  the  thing  must  be  done. 
Kisses,  and  the  raptures  of  the  flesh  —  they  were 
sweet.  Passion  was  sweet,  and  power  sweeter. 
Never  had  the  temptation  been  strong  as  then. 
She  was  on  the  verge  of  yielding  in  sight  of  those 


170  THEY  WENT 

houses  and  streets  that  displayed  so  much  un- 
tutored taste,  so  much  that  was  amiss  and  no 
longer  to  her  liking.  The  devil,  she  thought, 
would  soon  put  that  right ! 

"  No,"  she  decided.  "  I  will  stumble  forwards 
alone  and  be  slave  to  none.  The  devil,  if  he  is 
worth  anything,  will  know  of  my  plight  and  ap- 
pear of  his  own  accord.  Never  shall  I  summon 
him.  A  wise  devil  comes  without  being  called." 

It  pleased  her,  that  last  thought.  It  made  her 
smile.  Curiously  assuaged  in  mind,  she  de- 
scended to  the  lower  storey  of  her  tower  to  rest 
awhile.  Later  on,  she  would  go  to  the  palace  to 
inform  the  king  of  her  decision  to  dismiss  the 
dwarfs.  It  would  make  the  old  man  happy,  for 
he  misliked  those  little  people  —  Belen  alone 
knew  why. 

She  was  a  good  girl.  She  gratified  her  par- 
ents whenever  she  could. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

ISSUING  heedlessly  out  of  that  gateway  of 
ruddy  copper,  she  almost  collided  with  one 
of  several  persons  who  were  taking  the  air 
on  the  embankment.  It  was  the  lame  Theophi- 
lus.  He  drew  back  a  pace  and  saluted  her 
solemnly,  without  proffering  a  word.  He  looked 
gloomier  than  ever. 

"  You  are  sad,  Theophilus,"  she  remarked,  in 
that  charmingly  impulsive  manner  of  hers. 

He  glanced  at  her  in  a  forlorn  fashion,  and 
said : 

"  No  wonder.  I  have  just  seen  a  sight  which 
would  draw  tears  from  a  dead  buffalo." 

"  What  may  it  be?  " 

"  Yonder  cornice.  A  scandalous  production. 
It  has  spoilt  my  dinner  for  me." 

Her  own  cornice!  She  was  all  the  more  net- 
tled at  these  words,  as  she  divined  them  to  be 
true. 

"  You  think  so?  "  she  enquired,  not  without  a 
tinge  of  malice  in  her  voice.  "  Maybe  you  can 
devise  something  better?  " 

"  It  would  be  difficult,  princess,  to  devise  any- 
thing worse.  Look  at  this.  .  .  .  How  fortunate ! 

171 


172  THEY  WENT 

I  happen  to  have  some  charcoal  in  my  pocket." 

Out  of  the  recesses  of  his  long  cloak  he  ex- 
tracted a  pointed  black  fragment  and  there- 
with began  to  draw  a  design,  complicated  and 
yet  graceful,  on  the  white  marble  step  of  her 
tower,  merely  remarking,  while  his  hand  moved 
along  with  incredible  rapidity :  "  Your  propor- 
tions, you  see,  are  at  fault.  One  should  be  fas- 
tidious and  reverent  in  such  matters  —  yes,  rev- 
erent —  please  note  that  word  " —  the  thing  was 
completed,  before  she  had  time  to  think  of  a  re- 
joinder to  this  speech.  She  looked  in  amaze- 
ment at  the  marvellous  drawing. 

"  Only  a  sketch/7  he  said. 

On  many  later  occasions  she  noticed  that  The- 
ophilus,  however  brusque  and  opinionated  and 
cantankerous,  invariably  assumed  a  humble  tone 
when  talking  of  art,  as  though  oppressed  with 
the  burden  of  its  possibilities,  or  diffident  of  his 
own  talents. 

At  this  juncture  she  found  nothing  more  to 
say. 

She  glanced  at  him  swiftly,  wondering  yet 
again  who  this  stranger  might  be.  Was  he 
really  a  Greek?  That  beard  and  pale  complex- 
ion and  wrinkled  forehead  —  they  seemed  Jew- 
ish. She  knew  the  Hebrews;  the  wealthy  mer- 
chants, as  well  as  certain  less  reputable  members 
of  the  tribe  of  whom  she  had  crucified  six  or 


THEY  WENT  173 

seven  for  extorting  outrageous  interest  from  her 
pet  cultivators  of  fruit.  His  manner  was  dif- 
ficult to  define:  his  clothing  unquestionably 
Oriental,  sumptuous  and  reaching  to  the  ground, 
of  the  finest  quality,  but  without  ostentation.  A 
curious  dagger  hung  at  his  girdle  of  green  silk. 
He  had  a  weary  aspect,  as  of  one  who  despairs 
of  mankind ;  yet,  when  he  talked  of  his  favourite 
subjects,  a  kind  of  flame  seemed  to  burn  within 
those  restless,  deep-set  eyes.  She  knew  that 
scorching  flame.  It  had  hovered  about  her, 
sometimes,  in  the  dead  hour  before  dawn. 

She  would  have  enquired  point-blank  about  his 
nation,  his  business,  had  local  tradition  not  stood 
in  the  way.  To  respect  anonymity,  to  show  no 
interest  in  a  man's  calling  or  antecedents,  was 
an  unwritten  law  of  the  town  and  considered,  by 
many,  to  be  its  principal  attraction.  Folks  came 
here  for  such  different  purposes;  the  place  was 
full  of  mysterious  and  ambiguous  characters. 
Theophilus  might  be  anything  —  a  potentate  in 
disgrace,  a  voluptuary,  an  assassin,  an  honest 
trader.  Or  had  he  merely  come  to  spy  on  Ken- 
wyn,  as  she  thought  that  day  when  they  met 
at  the  dragon's  den?  She  would  find  out  sooner 
or  later !  Meanwhile  she  could  not  help  observ- 
ing, as  her  eye  flitted  back  to  the  charcoal  sketch : 

"Yours  is  a  practiced  hand.  Doubtless  you 
have  studied  the  arts  of  construction." 


174  THEY  WENT 

"  I  have  built  some  things  in  my  day. 
Towers  and  bridges;  also  a  few  churches.  Ay! 
Churches  for  Christians/'  he  said,  with  a  glum 
smile.  "  Only  a  short  while  ago  I  raised  a  belfry 
in  this  very  land.  I  have  also  done  a  little  work 
out  there,"  and  he  pointed  vaguely  northwards, 
in  the  direction  of  Aithryn's  realm.  "  When  you 
go  to  Byzance,  princess,  do  not  omit  to  view  the 
dome  of  Saint  Sophia.  Your  humble  servant  — 
he  reared  it,  though  the  fact  has  been  maliciously 
expunged  from  the  registers." 

"  I  shall  not  go  to  Byzance  just  yet,"  she  re- 
plied. "  I  dislike  the  thought  of  leaving  my  old 
parents." 

"  Indeed?     Tell  that  to  your  friend." 

"  You  said,  Theophilus?  " 

"  Tell  that  to  Kenwyn.  Unicorns  have  no  par- 
ents." 

She  understood.  It  was  idle  to  prevaricate 
with  this  man. 

"  You  are  right.  They  have  no  parents.  They 
only  think  of  beauty.  We  have  some  fine  struc- 
tures here,"  she  went  on,  "  built  by  a  Roman." 

"  By  a  Roman !  What  beauty  ever  came  out 
of  Rome?  What  does  Rome  stand  for?  Useful- 
ness. What  have  we  to  do  with  usefulness? 
The  Romans  end,  where  we  begin." 

"  You  are  right.     That  is  a  noble  dagger  of 


THEY  WENT  175 

yours.  I  never  saw  its  like.  I  love  to  see  new 
things,  and  always  new  things." 

He  drew  the  weapon  out  of  his  girdle.  The 
blade  was  wavy,  flawless;  the  hilt,  terminating 
in  the  figure  of  a  parrot's  beak,  had  been  wrought 
of  steel  and  inlaid  with  tangled  arabesques  and 
spirals  of  flowery  gold. 

"  Persian  stuff,"  he  said.  "  An  elaborate  af- 
fair !  Pray  accept  it  as  a  gift.  I  happen  to  have 
its  exact  counterpart  at  my  lodging.  Oh,  my 
wealth  is  considerable,"  he  added,  noticing  her 
hesitation.  "  It  will  bear  the  strain.  Oblige 
me." 

She  held  it  awhile  musingly.  It  was  thus  with 
every  new  product  of  art,  great  or  small,  which 
hand  could  touch  or  eye  survey;  she  yearned  to 
unravel  its  meaning  and  to  explore  the  processes 
whereby  it  justified  its  title  to  her  admiration; 
she  felt  drawn  towards  such  objects  as  other  men 
feel  drawn  towards  friends  or  blood-relations. 
This  little  dagger !  How  much  thought  and  cun- 
ning, she  now  reflected,  and  what  a  world  of  pa- 
tient experimentation,  lay  enfolded  in  this  trifle 
of  double  purpose.  .  .  .  The  blue  blade,  fash- 
ioned for  sinister  practical  needs  and  wedded, 
none  the  less,  to  that  purely  ornamental  ad- 
junct. .  .  .  Thus  life  should  be;  a  dagger,  a 
beauteous  dagger.  .  .  .  The  grip,  bent  into  a 


176  THEY  WENT 

shapely  curve,  the  bird's  beak  outlined  in  slender 
strips  of  gold,  while  layers  of  the  same  material, 
diverging  from  its  eyes,  invaded  the  black  steel 
with  their  glitter  .  .  .  how  crafty,  how  pleasing ! 
Only  metal-work,  but  of  a  kind  to  which  her 
dwarfs  could  never  aspire.  Well,  their  day  was 
over.  They  were  about  to  be  dismissed  from  her 
service. 

"  It  is  a  fair  implement,  and  you  greatly  tempt 
me !  "  she  confessed.  "  But  I  do  not  like  to  feel 
indebted  to  you." 

"  Make  me  your  debtor  in  return.  You  are 
about  to  dismiss  your  dwarfs " 

"Who  told  you  that?" 

"  Be  gentle  with  them,  princess.  They  are 
good  little  people  and  doubtless,  not  long  ago, 
made  you  happy  with  their  lore.  It  is  not  sur- 
prising that  you  should  now  have  reached  the 
limit  of  their  powers.  We  are  apt  to  outgrow 
our  teachers  in  wisdom,  but  whoever  has  helped 
us  to  a  larger  understanding  is  entitled  to  our 
gratitude  for  all  time.  That  strikes  me  as  hon- 
est dealing.  It  would  be  strange  if  they  could 
still  fulfil  your  desires  in  every  respect;  if,  for 
instance,  they  could  paint  scenes  on  plaster " 

"  That  reminds  me  of  what  you  told  our  ar- 
mourer Lelian  about  the  walls  of  one  tint,  and 
how  their  colour  may  be  made  to  endure  by  mix- 
ing it  with  the  plaster.  An  admirable  idea! 


THEY  WENT  177 

Belen  alone  knows  why  I  never  thought  of  it." 

"  Belen  is  old.  He  has  forgotten  all  he  ever 
knew." 

"  But  those  variegated  pictures  on  white 
walls/7  she  went  on,  "  those  scenes  of  hunting 
and  revelry  and  old-fashioned  worship  —  you 
must  have  observed,  Theophilus,  how  ill  they 
look  when  their  black  and  red  and  blue  begins 
to  run  down  the  white  surface  with  rain  or  sea 
moisture " 

"  They  always  look  ill.  A  positive  eyesore ! 
Why  bedaub  the  streets  in  this  barbaric  fash- 
ion?" 

She  did  not  allow  herself  to  be  troubled  by 
this  outburst,  but  proceeded  calmly : 

"  Can  they  ever  be  held  fast?  I  fear  you  will 
not  succeed  in  this  feat." 

"  If  it  comes  to  that,  won't  I?  "  said  the  other 
gaily.  "  See,"  he  continued,  "  here  is  a  wall  of 
fresh  plaster  which  your  clumsy  masons  have 
just  left.  Already  a  little  too  dry,"  he  remarked, 
running  his  hand  over  the  surface  which  he  then 
splashed  with  a  brush  from  a  pail  of  water,  "  and 
badly  worked  over  —  it  should  be  smoother  — 
some  marble  dust  would  not  have  been  amiss  .  .  . 
however,  rather  than  blame  your  people,  I  will 
draw  a  little  scene  from  my  own  country ;  merely 
a  sketch,  to  show  the  process." 

And  his  hand  that  held  the  charcoal  began 


178  THEY  WENT 

to  trace  upon  the  wet  expanse  certain  outlines 
of  a  group  of  festal  figures,  draped  and  naked, 
wending  upwards  under  an  avenue  of  trees 
towards  some  grandiose  structure  on  a  hill- 
top; a  joyous  company,  fair  to  see,  and  in  a 
style  altogether  new  to  the  princess.  "  Now  for 
a  few  tints.  Here  are  my  brushes/'  he  pursued, 
diving  once  more  into  the  folds  of  his  cloak. 
"  That  is  lucky.  I  thought  I  had  left  them  at 
home,  And  how  considerate  of  you,  princess,  to 
have  placed  these  pots  of  colours  at  my  feet,  just 
when  we  needed  them !  " 

"  Those  colours,  I  vow,  were  not  there  a  mo- 
ment ago." 

"  Where  else  should  they  have  been?  Pray  ob- 
serve how  they  conduct  themselves,"  he  added, 
proceeding  to  fill  in  the  black  outlines  with  flesh 
tints  and  verdant  green  and  the  blue  of  midday 
and  silvery  marbles  tones.  She  watched.  As  by 
enchantment  there  grew  up  before  her  eyes  a 
wondrous  spectacle;  the  figures  came  to  life;  they 
breathed  and  moved  in  radiant  sunshine,  while  he 
said,  still  continuing  at  his  task  in  a  mood  of 
ardent  exaltation: 

"  Drawn  downwards,  you  see,  into  the  moist 
plaster,  and  looking  all  the  more  mellow  in  con- 
sequence. They  will  not  fade  quite  so  soon  as 
those  harsh  miserable  daubs  of  which  you  spoke. 
I  know  another  method  which  is  far  more  durable 


THEY  WENT  179 

and  which  I  will  explain  to  you  on  some  future 
occasion "  his  hand  suddenly  left  the  wall. 

"  Ah,  finish  it !  That  young  warrior's  arm  — 
fill  it  in " 

"  Enough  for  today,"  he  replied. 

Theophilus,  plainly,  was  not  going  to  be 
"  worked  to  the  bone,"  like  the  rest  of  them. 

"  Now  tell  me,"  she  cried,  " —  tell  me  why  I 
have  never  thought  of  that  simple  plan." 

"  You  were  waiting  for  me  to  teach  you.  Per- 
haps there  is  still  room  for  improvement  inside 
that  pretty  little  head  of  yours." 

She  was  about  to  say :  "  You  are  right,  The- 
ophilus." She  refrained  and  grew  pensive. 
What  did  this  man  know?  Things  flashed 
through  her  mind.  ...  A  rare  sense  of  ease  and 
familiarity  had  crept  over  her  while  talking  dur- 
ing those  few  moments.  On  his  part,  too,  there 
was  a  complete  absence  of  restraint.  How  came 
it  about?  It  was  as  if  a  veil  had  been  lifted 
between  them,  as  if  blood  were  speaking  to  blood. 
Why  should  they  converse  like  friends?  How- 
ever far  apart  in  age  or  sex  or  race,  they  were 
comrades  in  the  spirit.  Neither  though  of  bet- 
terment. 

What  did  this  Greek  know?  It  mattered  not 
one  jot  what  he  knew!  Such  trivial  considera- 
tions were  swept  aside  in  the  immensity  of  her 
joy  and  relief  at  having  at  last  come  in  contact 


180  THEY  WENT 

with  a  man  whose  views  she  could  respect ;  a  man 
who  was  not  wrong,  but  right.  It  was  an  ex- 
hilarating state  of  affairs,  "  like  wine,"  she 
thought,  "  for  those  that  drink  it."  Who  cared 
what  he  knew!  Yet  something  drove  her  to 
say: 

"  You  are  teaching  me.  You  will  put  me 
under  an  obligation  which  is  not  to  my  taste, 
unless  I  can  compensate  you  in  some  fashion. 
Why  do  you  fall  in  with  my  fancies?  " 

"  For  fun,"  he  replied  rather  grumpily,  his 
artistic  humour  having  taken  flight  once  more. 
"  Nevertheless,"  he  went  on,  "I  respect  your 
scruples.  I  would  not  have  you  feel  indebted 
to  me,  and  if,  on  any  future  occasion,  I  can  be 
of  service  to  you  —  and  I  would  like  nothing 

better  —  rest  assured  of  that "  He  sighed, 

seeming  to  grow  slightly  embarrassed  as  he 
spoke.  And  he  took  out  of  his  pocket  certain 
beads  of  Indian  cornelian,  a  string  of  them,  and 
began  to  count  them  thoughtfully.  She  had 
already  seen  him  handling  those  beads;  it  was 
at  her  father's  palace,  when  old  Lelian  had  asked 
some  question  which  may  have  caused  pain  or 
annoyance.  "  He  is  trying  to  calm  himself,"  she 
concluded. 

"Well?" 

"  Then  by  all  means  let  us  come  to  some  ar- 
rangement," he  said.  "  You  are  such  a  sensible 


THEY  WENT  181 

young  lady  that  there  can  be  no  fear  of  any  con- 
flict between  us.  I  have  several  other  notions  in 
my  head,"  he  pursued,  more  fluently,  while  the 
old  aspiring  look  came  back  into  his  eyes. 
"  That  colonnade  by  the  harbour,  for  example  — 
it  is  a  mockery.  I  cannot  bear  to  pass  that  way. 
I  was  also  thinking,  just  now,  of  a  portico  to  this 
tower,  and  marvelling  that  your  old  Roman  mud- 
dler allowed  such  a  chance  to  escape  him.  In 
fact,  to  be  perfectly  frank,  this  town  of  yours  is 
apt  to  make  me  shudder.  Fantastic!  Barely 
sketched  out/' 

"  Barely  sketched  out,"  she  echoed.  "  And 
now,  let  us  settle  our  terms.  I  declare  you  are 
looking  positively  bashful !  "  she  laughed.  "You 
need  not  be  shy  with  me.  I  have  talked  all  my 
life  to  men  of  business,  and  to  others.  Hundreds 
of  them!  I  hate  misunderstandings." 

"  And  I  —  I  hate  talking  business,"  answered 
the  Greek.  "  I  was  always  absurdly  sensitive, 
even  as  a  little  boy.  Come  now!  Do  I  look 
like  a  person  who  wants  payment,  or  needs  it?  " 
He  spoke  with  obvious  sincerity. 

"  You  are  not  pretty,  Theophilus.  But  you 
look  honest.  Honest  men  are  sometimes  hard  to 
please.  I  have  met  two  or  three." 

He  sighed  again,  and  said : 

"  As  you  wish.  Let  us  be  just  to  one  another, 
for  such  is  the  basis  of  lasting  friendship.  We 


182  THEY  WENT 

will  make  a  clear  contract  as  soon  as  you  have 
had  a  little  time  to  judge  of  my  work  and  my 
ideas.  Meanwhile,  I  shall  consider  myself  amply 
repaid  if  you  are  tender  to  those  dwarfs  and 
allow  me,  in  my  spare  time,  to  do  what  I  can  for 
them.  We  should  be  kind  to  workers  in  metal. 
That  poor  little  Yuxo  is  pretty  far  gone " 

Yuxo,  she  thought.     He  knows  his  very  name ! 

" —  And  they  have  certain  enemies  in  this  town 
who  would  incite  you  to  deal  harshly  with  them. 
You  know?" 

"  I  know,"  she  replied. 

Kenwyn  hated  the  dwarfs;  he  called  them 
deviPs  folk  and  implored  her  to  drive  them  into 
the  wilderness  whence  they  had  come.  Ken- 
wyn .  .  .  how  far  away  he  seemed,  just  then! 
That  spiritual  kind  of  beauty,  that  goodness, 
of  which  he  had  spoken  —  how  far  away!  His 
drowsy  twilight  phrases  about  a  revelation.  .  .  . 
Here,  before  her  eyes,  was  a  revelation  of  another 
kind,  tangible,  and  not  to  be  denied.  She  gazed 
at  the  glowing  composition  on  the  wall  and 
thought :  one  inch  of  this  beauty  is  worth  a  league 
of  Kenwyn's.  He  had  now  been  preaching  in 
the  town  for  some  little  time ;  it  was  uphill  work, 
he  declared,  making  men  strive  after  goodness; 
they  greatly  preferred  striving  after  pleasure, 
"  or  beauty,  as  you  call  it."  He  had  endeavoured 
to  make  the  princess  strive  in  the  same  direction, 


THEY  WENT  183 

the  only  result  of  his  ministrations  being  to  fan 
a  flame  of  unrighteous  desire  between  them. 
Never  for  a  moment  had  he  touched  her  fiery  in- 
tellect, but  only  that  outward  thing,  its  fiery  com- 
plement, her  senses.  She  often  thought  of  him, 
not  aware  of  the  furiously  restrained  passion 
which  lay  beneath  that  calm  exterior.  He  would 
yield  at  a  touch !  She  was  sometimes  tempted  to 
try  the  experiment.  For  the  princess  was  not 
tepid;  she  disliked  shawls,  even  those  from  the 
Roof  of  the  World,  and  even  on  rainy  afternoons. 

"  Kenwyn,"  said  Theophilus,  who  seemed  to 
have  tracked  her  musings  further  and  further 
back,  into  their  dusky  hiding-place,  "  he  would 
have  you  ill-treat  the  dwarfs.  No  wonder. 
They  give  pleasure  to  men.  They  teach  fair 
artifices.  It  is  enough  to  make  a  Christian  fear 
them.  ...  A  handsome  person,  I  must  say,  with 
those  dreamy  blue  eyes.  If  I  were  a  young 
woman,  I  would  try  to  forget  that  he  has  no 
brains  behind  them.  And  probably  succeed,"  he 
added,  "  for  he  would  yield  at  a  touch,  and  make 
an  ardent  lover.  He  is  none  too  old " 

"  My  father  dislikes  them  too." 

"  That  ridiculous  young  person  is  no  longer 
answerable  for  his  opinions.  He  is  often  dis- 
gracefully drunk." 

"  You  said,  Theophilus?  " 

"  Hopelessly    drunk,    your   venerable    father. 


184  THEY  WENT 

He  babbles.  He  is  fast  growing  into  a  tankard, 
a  barrel.  Too  military." 

"You  are  right.  I  have  said  so  more  than 
once." 

"Which  reminds  me  of  the  key  at  his  girdle, 
the  key  of  the  sluice-gate,  and  of  what  might 
happen  to  this  low-lying  city  if  some  enemy 
should  filch  it  from  him  while  he  is  chattering 
fondly  about  his  martial  exploits.  That  key, 
princess,  should  be  in  your  hands.  Mark  my 
words." 

"  Many  a  time  have  I  attempted  to  take  it 
from  him!  You  cannot  think  how  obstinate  he 
is  on  that  point.  Parents  are  often  strangely 
hard-hearted." 

The  other  pondered  awhile,  -and  then  said : 

"  Try  again.  You  may  find  him  amenable  this 
evening." 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THEOPHILUS  happened  to  be  right. 
The  princess  caught  her  father  in  an 
uncommonly  favourable  mood.  He  be- 
gan, of  course,  by  saying : 

"  Another  day,  my  little  one,  another  day. 

Ask  your  mother "  who,  as  usual  on  such 

occasions,  was  nowhere  to  be  seen.  Then,  slowly, 
he  gave  way  to  her  entreaties. 

"  The  dear  child !  "  he  said  at  last.  "  Let  her 
have  it.  What  do  I  want  with  that  stupid  key, 
always  dangling  here?  And  here  it  is " 

At  this  moment,  for  an  unexplained  reason, 
contrary  to  all  precedent,  and  as  though  a  demon 
had  guided  her  footsteps,  the  royal  mother  sud- 
denly appeared  on  the  scene. 

"You  are  giving  the  child  that  key?"  she 
enquired.  "  Certainly  not !  I  am  surprised  at 
you.  Certainly  not." 

Dearly  as  she  loved  her  daughter,  and  almost 
invariably  as  she  gave  way  to  her  wishes,  she 
now  assumed  an  unwonted  air  of  decision.  Some 
blind  force  seemed  to  impel  or  inspire  her  to 
speak  as  she  did. 

"Such  a  sensible  girl "  the  father  began. 

185 


186  THEY  WENT 

"  Certainly  not.  After  all  those  entrails ! 
Have,  you  forgotten?  Here  is  our  good  Ando. 
He  shall  favour  us  with  his  opinion.  Now, 
Ando?  » 

The  court  prophet  wished  himself  in  some 
other  place.  He  disliked  family  arguments  and 
adjudications.  While  cherishing  small  affection 
for  the  protectress  of  his  enemy  the  blue  pest  — 
"  make  no  friend  of  a  red-haired  woman,"  he 
often  said  to  himself  —  he  had  no  desire,  on  the 
other  hand,  to  vex  her  father,  nor  yet  to  disoblige 
her  mother.  He  was  in  a  fix.  "  Why  was  I 
born?  "  he  wondered,  and  held  his  peace. 

"  Speak  up,  man,"  said  the  king. 

"  It  is  a  problem  requiring  anxious  thought." 

"  Try,  my  friend,"  objected  the  monarch,  "  try 
not  to  think  too  anxiously.  You  are  a  prophet. 
Try  to  prophesy,  for  a  change.  Now,  Ando?  " 

"  Prophets  are  like  peaches  —  never  to  be 
squeezed  until  they  are  ripe.  Otherwise  they  are 
liable  to  give  sour  juice.  Let  me  sleep  over  it," 
he  said,  hoping  that  they  would  have  solved  the 
problem  between  themselves  by  next  morning. 

"  Now,  Ando?  "  asked  the  royal  couple  in  one 
breath. 

"  The  key  has  hung  at  that  girdle  for  long, 
with  eminent  success  to  the  city.  May  it  hang 
there  for  ever !  But  note  this :  had  you  allowed 
me  to  sleep  over  it,  I  might  have  attained  to  some 


THEY  WENT  187 

inspiration  on  the  matter  and  advised  differently. 
Fresh  counsel  is  like  fresh  water  —  never  to  be 
swallowed  with  impunity/' 

Whereupon  the  king  turned  to  the  young  lady : 

"  You  hear?  Another  day,  my  child,  another 
day." 

Theophilus,  when  she  brought  him  this  news, 
seemed  to  take  it  with  extraordinary  calmness. 

"  I  Relieve  you  are  glad,"  she  said  to  him.  "  I 
believe  you  knew  beforehand." 

"  Not  glad,  princess,  but  only  resigned.  I  am 
quite  seasoned  to  such  little  disappointments,  I 
never  expect  anything  else.  No  harm,  by  the 
way,  in  trying  again,"  he  added  wearily. 

That  explains  his  dissatisfied  look,  she  thought. 

So  it  came  about  that  the  queen,  by  one  single 
act  of  opposition  to  her  daughter's  wishes,  sealed 
her  own  fate  and  that  of  the  city.  Or  was  it  her 
punishment  for  yielding,  twenty  years  earlier,  to 
the  blandishments  of  Aithryn,  when  he  stepped 
out  of  his  pea-green  boat? 

That  boat,  it  was  afterwards  discovered,  kept 
its  old  colour,  the  owner  having  never  dreamt  of 
painting  it  blue,  a  tint  he  rather  disliked.  He 
had  often  dreamt,  however,  of  returning  to  the 
scene  of  his  gallant  exploit,  when  the  time  was 
ripe.  And  the  time  was  mow  ripe.  For,  among 
other  things,  the  news  which  those  spies  succes- 
sively brought  from  over  the  water  had  raised 


188  THEY  WENT 

his  perplexity  and  envy  to  an  intolerable  pitch. 
The  city,  they  vowed,  was  opulent  and  fair  to 
see:  its  trade  had  thriven  beyond  belief  .  .  . 

Now  Aithryn,  as  it  happened,  was  not  the  only 
person  on  earth  to  avail  himself  of  spies.  The- 
ophilus,  whether  he  employed  such  agents  or 
whatever  other  means  of  garnering  news  he  may 
have  possessed,  was  remarkably  well  informed  of 
all  that  took  place  in  those  distant  regions  of  the 
North.  Not  long  afterwards  he  imparted  to  the 
princess  a  few  details  —  not  nearly  as  many  as 
he  might  have  imparted  —  concerning  the  doings 
of  what,  for  some  reason  of  his  own,  he  con- 
temptuously called  "  that  funny  little  man,  that 
red-haired  papa  of  yours." 

It  appeared  that  Aithryn,  like  other  folks,  had 
grown  twenty  years  older  in  the  interval; 
older,  and  possibly  wiser ;  certainly  sadder.  His 
golden  beard  was  streaked  with  threads  of  silver, 
and  though  that  strange  and  almost  god-like 
beauty  still  hung  about  him,  a  harassed  look  had 
settled  on  his  face.  There  was  trouble  and  grief 
in  yonder  rambling  hyperborean  castle,  whose 
very  embellishments  —  the  crazy  zigzag  patterns 
of  which  the  king  had  been  so  proud  —  were  fad- 
ing away  from  sheer  neglect.  He  was  too  un- 
happy to  concern  himself  with  such  matters. 

He  had  begun  to  suffer  a  good  deal  of  pain 
from  his  old  wound ;  pain,  too,  of  another  kind. 


THEY  WENT  189 

Things  had  gone  ill  with  him.  His  consort  had 
died.  Of  his  two  sons,  one  had  been  killed  in 
battle,  while  the  other  was  a  prisoner  in  the 
hands  of  the  painted  Picts  and  never  likely  to 
escape  from  chains.  Uswida,  his  only  daughter, 
lay  smitten  with  a  terrible  creeping  malady 
which  gnawed  away  her  powers  of  speech  and 
mocked  all  the  arts  of  medicine.  The  thought 
of  this  progeny  destroyed  filled  him  with  anguish 
unspeakable,  for  it  was  the  mark  and  merit  of 
this  king  to  be  "  absurdly  fond  of  his  children,'' 
as  Theophilus  had  said.  He  was  alone.  He 
looked  around  and  saw  nothing  but  mischief  at 
home,  mischief  abroad.  And  here  he  lived,  the 
last  of  the  Aithryns.  He  glanced  back  upon  the 
long  line  of  his  ancestors  .  .  .  the  last  of  the 
Aithryns ! 

Now  he  was  punished. 

Punished:  for  what? 

For  hearkening  to  the  druids.  Something 
must  be  wrong  with  their  counsel  or  their  creed, 
otherwise  such  a  torrent  of  evils  could  never 
have  overwhelmed  him. 

Musing  thus,  he  began  to  veer  round  to  the 
Christians,  who  had  meanwhile  prospered  in  the 
land.  They  were  enchanted.  "  He  is  at  last 
coming  to  his  senses,"  they  said.  They  began 
to  teach  him  things,  and  he  began  to  give  them 
things  —  parcels  of  soil  and  money  for  pious  pur- 


190  THEY  WENT 

poses.  "A  good  man,  our  Aithryn,"  they  de- 
clared, as  the  white-robed  one  would  have  said 
in  their  place,  and  actually  had  said,  twenty 
years  earlier.  Instead  of  that,  they  now  sadly 
observed :  "  Alack,  the  fellow  is  taking  leave  of 
his  wits.  He  grows  imbecile.  We  feared  he 
would."  That  was  because  the  king  had  learnt 
to  pray  fervently  and  to  repent  of  his  sins. 
Owing  to  age  and  the  pain  from  his  wound,  he 
was  a  slower  pupil  than  the  Christians  might 
have  wished ;  certain  doctrines  which  those  others 
had  failed  to  teach  him  —  concerning  Paradise 
and  Hellfire,  for  instance  —  puzzled  him  so 
greatly  that  he  was  obliged  to  give  them  several 
large  tracts  of  land  before  they  would  declare 
themselves  satisfied  with  his  progress.  Even 
then,  he  understood  their  teachings  but  imper- 
fectly. 

Another  spy  returned.  He  told  of  the  dwarfs, 
of  all  they  had  wrought  for  the  adornment  of  the 
city,  which  caused  his  new-found  Christian  ad- 
visers, who  misliked  that  race,  to  shake  their 
heads.  He  told  also  of  the  princess,  describing 
her  tower,  her  charm  of  person  and  ardent  activi- 
ties ;  there  was  no  mistaking  those  signs,  thought 
Aithryn.  Here  was  the  predestined  helper  and 
confederate  —  his  own  blood.  If  only  the  All- 
Highest  had  seen  fit  to  make  her  a  boy,  while  he 
about  it!  For  the  idea  had  promptly  en- 


THEY  WENT  191 

tered  his  head  —  a  sign,  maybe,  of  that  growing 
imbecility  which  the  druids  had  noticed  —  that 
she  must  be  his  own  child.  He  would  have  been 
pleased  at  the  discovery  but  for  certain  queer 
tales  which  he  learnt  anent  her  behaviour. 
Those  tales  —  they  gave  him  food  for  thought. 
Aithryn,  who  had  grown  good,  was  not  edified  by 
them;  he  wanted  to  do  something,  he  knew  not 
what. 

"  If  she  were  somebody  else's  daughter,"  he 
argued  in  dull  fashion,  "it  would  be  somebody 
else's  affair.  Whose  affair  is  it  now?  " 

So  he  brooded.  For  it  was  the  peculiar 
strength  of  his  race  to  cling  to  their  offspring, 
their  blood,  however  fortuitously  gotten;  family 
union  had  been  the  secret  of  their  worldly  suc- 
cess in  an  age  when  other  great  clans  lost  their 
rule  through  internal  dissensions.  At  last  he 
took  the  Christian  advisers  into  his  confidence 
and  told  them,  somewhat  shyly,  the  whole  truth. 

"  Whose  affair  is  it  now?  "  he  asked. 

"Yours,"  they  said.  Trifling  irregularities 
such  as  these,  they  then  explained,  could  be  com- 
pounded by  means  of  gifts  to  the  Church.  Then 
he  gave  a  few  more  miles  of  territory,  and  began 
to  feel  at  ease  again. 

Another  spy  returned.  His  report  was  clear 
and  convincing.  The  city  had  grown  so  sinful, 
it  flourished  so  exceedingly,  that  there  could  be 


192  THEY  WENT 

only  one  interpretation :  the  princess,  its  patron 
and  creator,  had  sold  herself  to  the  devil. 

"  They  do  tell  me/'  said  Aithryn  to  his  counsel- 
lors, "  that  she  has  >sold  herself  to  the  devil." 

The  Christians  held  up  their  hands  in  horror. 

"  Her  soul !  "  they  cried.  "  Her  immortal  soul 
is  imperilled.  This  is  no  trifling  irregularity, 
O  king." 

"  Is  it  possible?  You  alarm  me.  Please  ex- 
plain once  more,  slowly,  what  you  said  about 
Hell  and  Paradise." 

They  explained.  They  worked  on  his  imagina- 
tion and  paternal  feelings  to  a  painful  extent. 

"  That  settles  it,"  he  thought. 

Other  crimes,  they  went  on,  could  be  com- 
pounded; this  one,  never!  Moreover,  the  god- 
abandoned  city  must  be  destroyed  —  burnt,  and 
razed  to  the  ground. 

"  I  know  something  better,"  said  Aithryn. 

",It  will  be  a  meritorious  deed,"  they  con- 
cluded. "  You  will  gain  Paradise." 

"  I  care  less  about  Paradise  than  about  that 
girl  " —  a  singular  speech,  which  set  his  advisers 
wondering  whether  the  druids,  after  all,  were 
not  right  in  what  they  said  as  to  his  wits. 

Preparations  were  begun.  There  was  much  to 
be  considered,  in  order  that  the  enterprise  should 
go  off  happily  —  calculations  to  be  made  con- 
cerning the  season  and  tides  and  other  contin- 


THEY  WENT  t     193 

gencies.  The  spacious  wave-coloured  boat  must 
be  overhauled  and  rendered  seaworthy  once 
more.  And  all  the  time  Aithryn  was  nerving 
himself  for  this  final  effort.  Some  demon  seemed 
to  have  entered  his  being,  for  his  health  and 
spirits  were  observed  to  improve  wondrously 
under  the  influence  of  this  great  hope ;  the  ardent 
energy  of  his  race  descended  upon  him.  The 
pain  in  that  wound  ceased  to  give  trouble;  he 
was  now  engaged  upon  a  good  work.  He  would 
overwhelm  the  town ;  he  would  restore  his  daugh- 
ter and  bring  her  home,  to  carry  on  his  dominion. 

"  And  gain  Paradise,"  said  his  counsellors. 

"  True,"  he  replied.  .  .  . 

What  could  the  old  king,  as  he  lay  in  bed  that 
evening,  know  of  all  these  happenings  in  the  dim 
regions  of  the  white  North?  Nothing  whatever. 
Yet  an  omen  appeared  to  him  in  the  night;  a 
strange,  unlovely  omen.  He  saw  before  his  eyes 
a  watery  expanse  —  leagues  and  leagues  of  green 
ocean,  weltering  right  up  to  the  foot  of  the  dis- 
tant hills.  While  gazing  in  astonishment  upon 
this  dream-spectacle,  he  became  aware  of  an  un- 
usual scratching  sound.  Suddenly  that  pink 
porpoise,  that  fateful  fish  of  forty  years  ago, 
came  flying  into  the  window  of  his  chamber. 
The  beast  was  changed.  It  was  flushed  to  an 
almost  hectic  hue,  pinker  than  ever,  though 
sickly-looking,  and  dwindled  to  the  size  of  a 


194  THEY  WENO? 

mackerel.  After  whirling  silently  round  the 
room  three  or  four  times,  it  sat  down  on  the 
pillow  beside  his  head  and,  instead  of  laughing 
as  of  old,  began  to  croak  disconsolately : 

"  More  water,  more  water,  more  water " 

More  water,  thought  the  monarch.  Now: 
what  on  earth  does  it  mean?  I  give  it  up! 

He  nudged  his  consort,  who  was  slumbering 
at  his  side. 

"  The  porpoise !  Wake  up !  Perhapk  it  will 
talk  again." 

"  In  the  morning " 

"  The  porpoise,  I  say." 

"  In  the  morning " 

"In  the  morning.  Always  in  the  morning. 
Nobody  wants  to  talk  to  me.  Certainly  not.. 
Wake  up!  I  like  to  converse,  and  I  shall.  .  .  . 
No  talk?  Then  sing  a  song.  The  old  song  about 
the  swan  that  came  flying  out  of  the  North. 
What  did  the  swan  come  for,  I  wonder?  Belen 
alone  knows.  .  .  .  No  song?  Then  bring  me  a 
trumpet,  straight  or  curved " 

"  In  the  morning " 

"  In  the  morning.  Nobody  loves  me.  .  .  .  No- 
body !  That  daughter  of  ours  —  what  a  portent. 
You  say  she  is  hot.  I  find  her  mighty  cold;  cold 
as  a  stone.  A  metallic  girl.  She  says  she  will 
dismiss  the  dwarfs  to  please  her  old  father.  I 
say :  to  please  herself.  How  came  I  ever  to  have 


THEY  WENT  195 

such  a  child?  Belen  alone  knows.  And  Belen 
never  tells.  Did  you  see  her  face  when  I  re- 
fused her  the  key?  Did  you?  It  made  me 
shiver.  ...  I  used  to  play  with  her  and  make 
her  toys.  If  she  knew  how  often  I  thought  about 
her.  All  brain,  no  heart.  Can  one  live  without 
heart?  Certainly  not.  I  could  cry  about  it.  I 
am  a  little  older  than  I  used  to  be.  Old  men 
should  be  treated  kindly.  Can't  you  do  some- 
thing to  make  her  love  me?  Can't  you?  " 

"  In  the  morning " 

"  In  the  morning.  And  this  is  what  one  calls 
a  wife.  Well,  well!  Nobody  loves  me.  Cer- 
tainly not.  I  always  thought  so.  Now  I  know. 
Now  I  know.  Now  I  know.  .  .  ." 

The  news  of  the  king's  dream  created  a  sense 
of  disquietude  in  the  town,  chiefly  among  the  old 
believers  who  were  always  "  prepared  for  the 
worst,"  as  they  said,  having  never  forgotten  that 
first  Christian  preacher's  curses,  and  how  he 
prophesied  a  watery  fate  to  their  city  in  certain 
ominous  words  about  retribution  from  the  sea. 
At  the  palace,  too,  everybody  felt  more  or  less 
oppressed  and  ill  at  ease.  The  court  prophet 
alone  was  seen  to  smile.  He  had  a  reputation 
to  keep  up. 

"  What  says  Ando?  "  enquired  the  king. 

"  I  distrust  these  subtle  far-fetched  interpreta- 
tions," he  replied.  "  It  is  the  summer  season, 


196  THEY  WENT 

when  creatures  of  many  shapes  are  wont  to  start 
up  from  their  slimy  depths,  and  writhe  and  crawl 
and  scramble  and  flutter  about  with  strange 
antics.  Now  what  have  we  here?  We  have  a 
kind  of  sea-beast  in  the  royal  sleeping  apartment. 
This  beast,  good  sirs,  is  not  like  me.  It  wants 
more  water.  It  wants  to  return  to  the  ocean. 
No  wonder!  A  bedroom  is  not  the  place  for  a 
fish." 


CHAPTER  XV 

SHE  thought  it  singular  that  Theophilus 
should  be  wearing  a  dagger  alike  down 
to  the  minutest  details  of  workmanship  to 
the  one  he  had  given  her.  It  was  one  of  many 
odd  things  about  him.  Sometimes  she  was 
tempted  to  beg  for  this  one  too,  in  order  to  see 
whether  he  could  produce  a  third.  It  would  not 
have  astonished  her.  The  man  was  full  of  sur- 
prises. 

She  refrained,  wishful  not  to  place  herself 
under  more  obligations  than  necessary. 

Obligations  —  were  they  veritable  obligations, 
or  only  marks  of  friendship  on  his  part? 
She  could  not  make  up  her  mind;  it  was 
a  troublesome  question.  She  would  say  to  her- 
self :  "  Tomorrow,  tomorrow.  I  will  think  about 
it  tomorrow."  The  next  day  came,  and  the  next, 
and  still  she  drifted  along  in  blissful  heedless- 
ness.  It  was  so  much  more  enjoyable  to  discuss 
matters  of  art,  to  listen  to  his  views  on  men  and 
things,  or  to  watch  his  marvellous  hand  at  work. 
Yet  there  were  moments  when  she  felt  dissatis- 
fied and  on  the  verge  of  demanding  how  she 
could  requite  him  for  his  pains.  He  had  placed 

197 


198  THEY  WENT 

his  time,  his  ideas,  his  entire  person  at  her  dis- 
posal.    So  much  was  certain. 

How  set  about  it?  How  approach  the  sub- 
ject? For  Theophilus  was  different  from  earlier 
helpers.  The  strange  sense  of  comradeship  and 
familiarity  which  had  grown  up  between  them 
made  it  hard  for  her  to  touch  upon  the  mundane 
theme  of  remuneration.  He  was  so  evidently  a 
travelled  man  of  the  world,  accustomed  to  ease 
and  the  life  of  courts;  more  like  a  brother,  some 
wise  elder  brother.  How  could  she  suggest  pay- 
ing for  his  teaching?  He  took  much  manifest 
pleasure  in  filling  her  mind  with  fresh  notions 
and  explaining  new  processes  of  construction  or 
painting.  It  seemed  as  if  he  had  nothing  what- 
ever to  do  save  to  fall  in  with  her  fancies.  He 
relished  work ;  it  was  one  of  the  points  in  which 
he  resembled  the  now  neglected  dwarfs,  who  used 
to  call  it  "play."  Unlike  them,  however,  and 
unlike  the  defunct  Ormidius  Limpidus,  he  never 
allowed  himself  to  be  "  worked  to  the  bone." 
No.  He  had  been  so  firm,  and  even  impolite,  on 
those  occasions  when  she  had  striven  to  make  him 
produce  something  beyond  his  inclination  that 
nowadays  she  never  attempted  the  feat.  There 
was  nothing  to  be  done  with  Theophilus  when 
he  was  not  in  his  creative  mood.  He  would  grow 
sombre  and  discontented  once  more,  while  that 
sparkle,  that  inner  light,  faded  out  of  his  eyes. 


THEY  WENT  199 

He  would  begin  playing  with  those  beads  like 
any  other  sulky  merchant,  Greek  or  Jew.  "  No 
wonder  he  is  morose,"  she  then  thought,  "  and 
irritable,  and  even  contradictory  —  with  talents 
like  his." 

There  was  another  difference  between  him  and 
those  former  teachers.  They  had  their  limita- 
tions :  he  had  none.  His  fancy  could  rise  to  the 
clouds,  and  his  craftsmanship  keep  pace  with  it. 
Nothing  seemed  impossible  to  this  man.  Doubt- 
less, if  so  disposed,  he  could  throw  ah  arch  from 
earth  to  the  stars.  And  it  was  the  same  in  quite 
small  matters.  One  day  he  painted  an  admirable 
portrait  of  Harre"  in  his  blue  costume,  a  costume 
of  which,  by  the  way,  he  strongly  disapproved. 
(Though  not  much  of  a  prude,  Theophilus  had 
certain  violent  prejudices  of  his  own.)  It 
amused  the  princess  greatly.  And  what  amused 
her  even  more  was  a  caricature  of  the  poor  old 
king,  so  unflattering  a  likeness  that  in  olden  days 
she  might  have  professed  to  feel  annoyed.  Now 
she  laughed.  She  was  changing.  Her  parents 
had  grown  into  objects  of  mirth. 

"  Hit  off  to  the  life,"  she  declared.  "  He  is 
trying  to  look  royal,  but  cannot.  No  wonder, 
with  that  nose !  And  now  make  me  a  picture  of 
my  other  one  —  of  the  red-haired  little  man  in 
the  North,  you  know,  about  whom  you  have  told 
me." 


200  THEY  WENT 

Whereupon  lie  did  a  sketch  of  Aithryn  seated 
gravely  on  his  throne,  with  a  tall  silver  crown, 
and  that  golden  beard  flowing  majestically  over 
sea-green  robes  —  an  imposing  apparition  but  for 
the  eyes,  into  which  the  artist  contrived  to  put 
an  almost  imbecile  look. 

"  A  handsome  man,  you  perceive,"  he  said. 
"  He  would  have  been  intelligent  like  yourself, 
had  his  skull  not  been  injured  in  that  accident/' 

Ah,  Theophilus  —  he  was  different  from  all  the 
rest  of  them !  "  At  last,"  she  often  thought,  "  I 
am  truly  learning.  Up  to  this  moment  I  have 
stumbled  forwards  in  the  dark.  Now  I  see  the 
light  ahead.  All  my  life  I  have  waited  for  this 
man.  He  is  my  beacon." 

One  of  the  first  things  the  Greek  had  taken 
in  hand  was  a  portico  to  her  tower.  Hitherto  the 
citizens  who  walked  along  the  embankment 
would  pass  in  the  open  before  the  door  of  that 
house,  which  stood  on  the  inner  side  of  the  vast 
sea-wall.  "  Let  them  walk  through  a  covered 
porch,"  said  Theophilus  — "  a  porch  whose  arches 
shall  bestride  the  entire  embankment  and  plant 
their  feet  in  the  sea.  Overhead  we  will  repeat 
the  pattern,"  he  explained,  "  and  rear  a  breezy 
chamber  beautified  with  paintings.  Its  roof 
shall  be  supported  on  dainty  columns.  Thereto 
you  will  step  from  your  middle  storey  to  take 
your  pleasure  on  summer  evenings,  to  listen  to 


THEY  WENT  201 

conversation  and  sweet  music,  and  enjoy  the 
prospect  over  the  ocean." 

It  struck  her  as  an  excellent  idea.  She  won- 
dered, as  usual,  why  she  had  never  thought  of 
it  herself. 

And  now  the  structure  drew  towards  comple- 
tion. Her  friend  was  engaged  at  that  moment 
in  etching  upon  its  inner  wall  a  wonderful  col- 
our-design according  to  that  more  complicated 
and  durable  system  which  he  had  meanwhile 
made  clear  to  her.  She  watched  admiringly. 
He  was  in  rare  good  humour. 

"  You  are  gay,  Theophilus." 

"  Joy  lies  in  creation,  not  in  the  thing  created. 
All  life  should  be  thus  —  building,  and  unbuild- 
ing, and  building  anew  with  ever  fresh  en- 
thusiasm and  ever  deeper  insight.  If  this  city 
should  one  day  be  swept  away,  we  will  found  a 
new  one  in  another  place,  a  better  place.  The 
site  of  this  flat  town  has  grave  defects;  it  does 
not  give  full  scope  to  our  talents." 

He  had  touched  upon  that  subject  once  or 
twice  before,  as  though  preparing  her  mind  for 
some  possible  catastrophe.  At  first  she  was  sad 
at  the  thought  that  her  dream  might  be  de- 
stroyed. Latterly  she  had  grown  more  accus- 
tomed to  the  idea.  Here  or  elsewhere  —  what 
mattered  it,  so  long  as  Theophilus  remained  at 
her  side;  so  long  as  she  was  learning  and  seeing 


202  THEY  WENT 

new  things,  always  new  things?    None  the  less, 
she  observed : 

"  The  All-Highest  will  permit  no  more  floods. 
So  Kenwyn  says.  He  placed  the  rainbow  in  the 
sky " 

"  He  is  old.  Yet  that  rainbow  was  there  be- 
fore he  was  born.  Believe  me,  princess,  he  works 
by  spasms  nowadays.  He  fumbles  and  gropes. 
Talking  of  rainbows,  for  example:  not  long  ago 
he  drowned  everybody  in  a  fit  of  bad  temper  at 
one  of  his  own  blunders.  Then  he  repented  of 
his  rage,  and  sent  some  one  to  save  them  again. 
He  is  liable  to  repeat  such  frolics.  You  must  be 
prepared  for  anything,  my  lady,  where  he  is  con- 
cerned.'' 

"  But  Kenwyn  says " 

"  Fancy  listening  to  Kenwyn !  And  that  re- 
minds me " 

Theophilus  seemed  to  grow  suddenly  thought- 
ful and  embarrassed.  He  laid  down  his  brushes 
with  a  sigh. 

"  Reminds  you  of  what?  "  she  enquired. 

"  Nothing.  .  .  .  Another  day !  I  hate  that 
subject." 

She  guessed  his  thoughts. 

"  I  am  glad  you  mentioned  it.  Now  don't  be 
timid,  like  last  time.  Come,  let  us  talk  frankly. 
Tell  me  what  your  recompense  should  be.  You 
shall  have  it!  Fifty  pounds  of  minted  gold  is 


THEY  WENT  203 

none  too  much  for  what  you  have  done.  I  will 
give  you  a  hundred,  and  another  hundred  when 
this  portico  and  the  colonnade  by  the  harbour 
is  completed.  Are  you  content?  " 

"  My  wealth,  princess,  is  considerable.  No 
gold  for  me." 

"No  gold?  You  are  perplexing,  Theophilus. 
What  would  you  have  then?  Me?"  she  added 
with  a  laugh. 

The  man  looked  uncommonly  grumpy  at  this 
jocular  suggestion.  He  said : 

"  I  am  not  an  Ethiopian  chieftain.  Or  even  a 
Roman  engineer." 

Once  again,  as  often  before,  the  thought 
flashed  through  her  mind;  what  did  he  know? 
She  was  well  aware  that  there  had  been  some 
talk  in  the  town  regarding  the  disappearance 
of  certain  prominent  folks.  It  was  astonishing, 
nevertheless,  how  he  had  been  able  to  pick  it 
all  up. 

Who  cared  what  he  knew !  His  knowledge  of 
this  or  that  incident  in  her  life  mattered  nothing 
whatever,  provided  he  went  on  with  the  portico 
and  those  other  projects.  All  the  rest  was  of  no 
account.  Let  him  unravel  all  her  little  secrets! 
She  replied,  quite  simply: 

"  True.  You  are  not  as  pretty  as  that  Ethi- 
opian, nor  as  meddlesome  as  the  Eoman.  Your 
price?  " 


204  THEY  WENT 

He  sighed  jet  again  and  appeared  to  be  nerv- 
ing himself  for  an  unpleasant  task. 

"  There  are  some  subjects,''  he  began,  "  which 
one  feels  a  kind  of  delicacy  in  approaching " 

"  You  are  going  to  be  coy  again.  This  will 
never  do.  Out  with  it !  " 

He  leaned  his  head  on  one  side,  whimsically, 
as  though  listening  to  something  underground, 
and  remarked : 

"  Water  flowing.'' 

"  Is  there?  "  she  enquired  in  her  airiest  man- 
ner. "  You  must  have  good  ears,  Theophilus." 

"  The  gods  have  favoured  me  in  this  respect, 
and  I  am  duly  grateful.  It  must  be  a  terrible 
affliction  to  be  deaf!  Have  you  ever  thought, 
princess,  what  it  would  mean  to  be  unable  to 
hearken  to  pleadings  of  love  or  words  of  wisdom, 
to  music,  the  blithe  carollings  of  birds  and  all 
those  sweet  mysterious  voices  of  nature " 

"  You  are  wandering  from  the  point,  my  good 
friend.  Your  price?  " 

"  To  be  sure.  What  a  disagreeable  topic !  I 
wish  I  were  a  thousand  miles  from  here.  I  have 
always  been  ridiculously  shy;  it  is  the  curse  of 
my  existence.  He  must  go." 

"He  must  go.     He?     Who?" 

"  Beauty  is  manifold,  and  inexhaustible,  and 
hard  of  attainment,"  he  began  again.  "  Good- 
ness is  ever  the  same.  There  is  only  one  kind 


THEY  WENT  205 

of  goodness  to  a  myriad  forms  of  beauty.  You 
flattered  me,  the  other  day,  by  saying  that  I 
could  build  a  roadway  from  this  earth  of  ours 
to  the  stars.  Perhaps  I  could.  Perhaps  —  who 
knows?  —  I  have  already  built  it,  for  certain 
ardent  ones " 

"  Ah,  Theophilus,  help  me  to  step  that  way !  " 

"Between  goodness  and  beauty  there  yawns 
a  gulf  which  none  can  bridge  over.  Uphill  work, 
princess,  trying  to  make  men  strive  after  beauty 
and  rise  aloft.  It  is  so  much  easier  to  make  them 
good,  to  keep  them  grovelling  earthwards,  that 
sometimes  I  think  that  I,  too,  will  grow  into  a 
preacher  in  my  old  age.  Can  you  picture  me 
preaching  and  endeavouring  to  instil  into  your 
poor  little  heathen  mind  some  notions  of  the 
true  God  and v 

"  Your  price?  " 

"  Oh,  I  have  good  friends  among  the  Chris- 
tians; men  of  a  different  stamp;  men  who  sym- 
pathize with  my  aspirations.  As  to  this  one  — 
pray  don't  make  me  go  into  details.  Pray  take 
my  meaning." 

She  took  his  meaning.  It  was  idle  to  prevari- 
cate with  Theophilus. 

"  Why  that  one?  "  she  asked.  "  It  seems  a 
pity." 

"  It  is  never  a  pity  to  uproot  a  menace.  Has 
he  not  spoken  disparagingly  of  your  work? 


206  THEY  WENT 

Would  lie  not  destroy  this  city  if  he  could?  " 

"He  would.  He  thinks  differently  from  us. 
His  right  is  not  our  right,  and  his  wrong  is  not 
our  wrong.  But  he  means  well." 

"  Foolish  men,  my  lady,  always  mean  well. 
He  would  overturn  our  work,  and  say  he  meant 
well.  We  have  enemies  enough  without  him ;  the 
All-Highest,  I  mean,  and  that  red-haired  papa  of 
yours.  They  are  leagued  together,  like  all  good 
folks,  for  the  destruction  of  beauty.  Envy  makes 
strange  bed-fellows." 

The  princess  did  not  know  what  more  to  say. 
A  wave  of  perplexed  sadness  was  sweeping  over 
her.  She  had  ceased  a  good  while  since  to  pay 
any  heed  to  the  exhortations  of  Kenwyn;  she 
was  deaf  to  his  arguments.  She  could  not  be 
blind  to  his  spirit,  his  reserve.  The  Christian 
was  different  from  all  those  other  men  who  had 
hitherto  laid  their  hearts  at  her  feet.  He  suf- 
fered in  silence.  For  the  first  time  in  her  life 
there  mingled,  with  that  disdainful  sensuality  of 
hers,  a  strain  of  something  purer  and  akin  to 
affection.  She  knew,  and  began  to  respect,  the 
anguish  which  lay  behind  his  speechlessness, 
though  even  now  —  even  at  that  very  moment, 
while  thinking  of  these  things  —  she  was  tempted 
by  that  coarse  demon  of  the  flesh  which  hung 
about  her  — 

"  To  make  him  yield  by  a  touch,"  observed 


THEY  WENT  207 

Theophilus,  interrupting  the  current  of  her  medi- 
tations and  striving,  as  once  before,  to  reach  that 
dark,  defective  chord  in  the  caverns  of  her  soul, 
"it  would  be  no  hard  matter.  Dry  as  tinder! 

Touch  him,  and  then "  Once  more  he 

leaned  his  head  on  one  side,  whimsically. 

She  gazed  for  a  long  time  over  the  sea  before 
replying.  How  calm  it  lay  there!  Something 
of  its  luminous  tranquillity  entered  into  her 
being,  for  she  said : 

"  I  know  not  how  it  is ;  I  have  changed  of  late. 
Try  to  believe  what  I  say.  I  am  purging  my- 
self of  earthly  humours.  I  care  more  for  your 
teaching  than  for  a  thousand  lovers.  This  por- 
tico is  my  dream.  As  to  doing  what  you  say  — 
I  cannot.  He  has  gained  a  place,  a  small  place 
apart  for  himself.  It  is  the  truth." 

Theophilus  merely  remarked : 

"  You  asked  me  to  name  my  price.  I  obeyed 
your  commands." 

"  I  cannot.  You  taught  me  to  be  reverent  and 
sensitive,  and  to  think  of  other  matters.  It  is 
your  fault." 

"  My  fault !  It  has  always  been  my  fault,  ever 
since  I  was  a  little  boy.  So  be  it.  I  am  seasoned 
to  such  disappointments  —  oh,  quite !  I  never 
expect  anything  else.  I  will  now  seek  another 
princess,  a  more  reasonable  one,  and  begin  build- 
ing afresh." 


208  THEY  WENT 

She  could  not  help  laughing  at  this  speech. 

"Another  princess?  You  will  never  find 
her." 

"  Won't  I?  "  said  Theophilus.  "  They  are  not 
nearly  as  scarce  as  one  thinks.  Loth  as  I  am  to 
leave  this  portico  undone,  I  depart  today." 

"  Depart? "  she  cried  anxiously.  "  You  de- 
part this  day,  leaving  your  work  undone?  Tha,t 
is  wrong." 

"  Your  lover  would  call  it  right." 

"  Besides,  you  promised " 

Theophilus  broke  in,  and  never  had  he  spoken 
so  sternly: 

"  I  promised  nothing.  Be  good  enough  to 
leave  me  what  I  hold  dearer  than  life  itself  — 
my  reputation  for  honest  dealing.  This  is  a 
town  for  monks.  I  depart.  Farewell." 

"  Depart,"  she  echoed.  She  could  hardly  be- 
lieve her  ears.  The  enormity  of  her  loss  re- 
vealed itself,  all  at  once,  in  that  single  word. 
Depart!  It  was  the  death-sentence  of  her  am- 
bitions. 

"You  break  me  in  two,"  she  said,  and  her 
voice  sunk  to  a  whisper.  "  Ah,  how  you  make 
me  suffer!  You  are  my  master,  my  inspirer. 
All  undone,  like  this?  " 

"  All  undone !  Come  now,"  he  added  in  more 
jovial  tones,  "  are  you  going  to  let  him  stand  in 


THEY  WENT  209 

your  way?  Think  it  over.  A  portico  is  worth 
a  preacher." 

She  surveyed  the  structure  dearer  to  her  heart 
than  mortal  man  had  ever  been.  A  wrong,  a 
foul  wrong  would  be  done  if  this  thing  of  beauty, 
destined  to  grow  harmoniously  to  its  close, 
should  now  be  snapped  asunder.  And  while  her 
eyes  ran  over  the  fair  outlines  she  began  to  feel 
an  ache  within  her,  that  old  familiar  ache  at  the 
back  of  her  forehead  which  assailed  her  in  times 
of  mental  anguish  —  something  striving  to  break 
loose.  An  ache,  and  then  a  mist  — 

Tears,  hot  tears :  they  welled  forth  and  rolled 
down  her  cheeks;  the  first  of  all  her  life.  She 
raised  a  hand  in  marvelling  fashion  to  her  face, 
and  felt  their  moisture.  She  said : 

"  Strange !  Wet !  Now  I  know  what  they 
feel,  those  who  cry.  How  I  suffer !  .  .  .  All  un- 
done? Can  you  bear  the  thought  of  it?  Then 
I  too  am  undone,  for  it  is  part  of  myself.  Speak, 
Theophilus." 

The  other  was  no  longer  at  her  side. 

She  glanced  down  and  saw  him  limping  away, 
far  below,  in  the  direction  of  the  harbour.  "  I 
must  follow,"  she  thought. 

It  was  the  hour  before  midday. 

There,  on  the  placid  green  water,  a  boat  was 
seen  moving  away  from  the  quay  —  the  boat  of 


210  THEY  WENT 

Man  this.  Four  of  her  elder  girls  rowed;  in  the 
stern,  holding  the  rudder,  sat  Kenwyn  who  was 
now  on  his  way  to  the  Sacred  Rock,  rather  re- 
luctantly, in  response  to  an  oft-repeated  invita- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  kindly  old  dame.  He 
looked  landwards  and,  recognizing  the  princess, 
waved  his  arm.  She  waved  back ;  she  smiled  in- 
stinctively as  often  before ;  her  smile  soon  melted 
into  something  different. 

A  voice  at  her  side  remarked : 

"  Our  enemy." 

"  You  are  right,  Theophilus.  I  have  come  to 
see  your  point  of  view.  Would  you  delay  your 
departure  if " 

"  I  desire  nothing  better.  And  now  we  will 
go  back  to  the  portico  and  do  a  little  painting. 
An  idea  has  just  occurred  to  me.  And  —  oh, 
princess,  never  let  us  talk  business  again.  It  dis- 
tresses me  more  than  I  can  say." 

"  Never  again.  It  distresses  both  of  us.  You 
made  me  cry,  Theophilus.  No  man  has  ever  done 
that  before.  It  was  rather  unpleasant." 

"  It  seems  to  be  my  fate  to  make  people  cry. 
A  most  vexatious  state  of  affairs,"  he  declared, 
in  a  tone  of  genuine  annoyance.  "  I  wish  some- 
thing could  be  done  about  it." 

"Don't  take  it  to  heart,  my  good  friend. 
Bother  that  preacher!  I  was  altogether  in  the 


THEY  WENT  211 

wrong.    Make  me  cry  again,  as  often  as  you 
please.     Only  help  me  to  learn." 

How  soft  she  had  grown  —  so  far,  at  least,  as 
this  foreigner  and  his  art  caprices  were  con- 
cerned ! 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  boat  of  Manthis  glided  outward,  her 
children  rowing  in  sailorly  fashion.  It 
was  a  windless  summer  day;  deep  blue 
sky  overhead.  They  skirted  a  few  rock-islets 
against  which  the  waves  were  lapping  with 
scarcely  a  ripple. 

Kenwyn  said  nothing.  He  saw  nothing  of  the 
landscape.  He  had  caught  her  smile;  not  the 
look  that  followed.  He  mused  distractedly : 

"  I  am  not  myself.  I  am  somebody  else. 
Happy  Gwenulf!  Happy  Manthis!  It  is  easy 
to  be  pure  at  their  age." 

Then  the  visions  began  again;  tormenting 
visions  of  contact  with  the  flesh.  Her  influence 
upon  him  was  of  the  lowest  and  strongest  kind. 
There  was  no  reasoning  with  it.  A  desire 
haunted  him  by  day  and  by  night,  a  burning 
desire  not  vague  but  definite,  and  one  which  no 
holy  texts  could  quench.  As  in  a  dream  he 
watched  the  mainland  receding  from  view,  and 
wondered  whether  he  would  encounter  her  on 
his  return  to  the  town  in  the  evening.  He  feared 
he  would.  He  hoped  he  would.  "  For  this  can 
endure  no  longer/'  he  thought. 

212 


THEY  WENT  213 

In  the  college,  meanwhile,  a  great  calm  pre- 
vailed. Morning  lessons  were  over;  it  was  the 
brief  spell  of  relaxation  before  the  midday  meal. 
Manthis,  all  alone,  had  walked  a  few  paces  up 
the  winding  path  to  that  garden  which  her  chil- 
dren and  herself  had  laboriously  wrested  from 
the  bleak  soil.  There,  on  her  favourite  wooden 
bench,  she  reposed  awhile,  looking  over  the  tree 
tops  of  a  young  plantation  and  rows  of  trim 
vegetables  in  the  direction  of  the  city,  one  corner 
of  whose  mighty  embankment  and  brazen  tur- 
rets could  be  seen  far  away,  gleaming  across  the 
water  and  overhung,  on  these  summer  mornings, 
by  a  roseate  canopy  of  sea  mist  and  ascending 
smoke. 

She  was  awaiting  Kenwyn,  due  to  arrive  for 
the  midday  meal. 

All  around  were  rocks;  a  cirque  of  ancient 
grey  boulders.  Some  cattle  were  pasturing  over- 
head on  a  green  sunshiny  meadow  near  the  lake. 
They  belonged  to  that  small  farm  which  supplied 
the  inmates  of  the  college  with  dairy  produce, 
and  where  they  learnt  the  rudiments  of  hus- 
bandry. Ranged  in  a  row  beside  her  seat  stood 
the  beehives.  She  loved  to  watch  the  busy  com- 
ing and  going  of  the  insects,  and  many  an  object 
lesson  in  domestic  economy  had  her  children 
gleaned  from  their  habits,  particularly  in  regard 
to  the  treatment  of  the  male. 


214  THEY  WENT 

They  tired  her,  those  young  ones,  more  than 
she  cared  to  confess.  Manthis  was  growing  old. 
She  needed  rest  and  solitude  at  times.  Today, 
as  often  before,  she  yearned  not  for  solitude  but 
for  companionship,  the  companionship  of  some 
thoughtful  woman  like  herself. 

It  was  not  to  be.  The  friends  she  knew  were 
her  equals  in  no  respect.  Manthis  was  alone  in 
the  world;  she  had  ever  been  alone.  There  was 
a  gulf  between  her  and  the  rest  of  mankind. 
True,  she  taught  her  girls  —  history,  mythology, 
botany,  medicine  and  other  subjects;  she  could 
influence  their  development  up  to  a  point.  Even 
here,  as  teacher,  she  was  hampered  by  inexorable 
precedent,  and  that  perfect  frankness  of  speech, 
which  she  held  to  be  the  greatest  good,  was 
denied  her  in  regard  to  them.  Tradition,  and 
public  opinion,  and  parents  —  they  had  all  to 
be  taken  into  account.  Not  that  these  latter  ven- 
tured to  approach  her  personally.  There  was  no 
approaching  Manthis.  They  contrived,  none  the 
less,  to  make  their  peculiar  wishes  and  whims 
known  through  her  under-teachers  and  even 
through  the  queen,  whom  she  could  not  wholly 
disregard;,  the  nobles  and  old  believers  insist- 
ing upon  a  rigid  adherence  to  methods  of  bygone 
centuries,  while  certain  pushful  merchants  sug- 
gested innovations  which  she  dared  not  intro- 
duce, "  not  yet,"  she  would  say  to  herself.  A 


THEY  WENT  215 

difficult  ship  to  steer!  Often  she  wished  her 
college  stood  far  away  from  the  town,  in  some 
spot  where  she  could  have  a  "  fair  chance/'  and 
mould  the  children  as  they  deserved  to  be 
moulded.  Her  status  of  priestess  completed  the 
isolation.  She  was  an  oracle ;  she  moved  among 
formulas  and  rites.  "I  am  an  old  granite 
island,"  she  thought,  "  all  alone  in  the  sea.  It  is 
not  well  to  be  a  granite  island.  It  is  not  well  to 
grope  alone.  One  gropes  in  a  groove.  I  would 
purge  myself  of  dross  to  my  dying  day.  De- 
prived of  the  clash,  the  sword  grows  rusty.  I 
need  a  friend,  a  helper." 

To  some  such  friend  she  would  then  have  said, 
speaking  of  the  subject  which  was  nearest  her 
heart : 

"  We  must  strive  after  betterment  and  happy 
social  conditions,  is  it  not  so?  What  makes  for 
betterment?  Justice,  peaceful  rule.  What  is 
the  hinge  of  peaceful  rule?  Family  life.  The 
hinge  of  family  life?  Woman." 

"  How  true !  "  the  imaginary  friend  would 
reply. 

"  The  male  is  not  deficient  in  a  kind  of  animal 
docility.  He  only  needs  proper  guidance,  for 
the  good  of  his  country  and  his  own.  He  is  the 
irrigating  or  fertilizing  element ;  a  torrent  which, 
left  to  itself,  would  devastate  the  land.  This 
necessary  but  rugged  force  must  be  tamed, 


216  THEY  WENT 

banked  up,  and  diverted  from  its  natural  im- 
pulses to  serve  the  welfare  of  mankind.  It  must 
learn  to  turn  the  mill." 

"  It  must." 

"  It  must.  All  that  strength  and  energy 
wasted,  owing  to  lack  of  sound  direction !  What 
has  our  race  not  achieved  by  means  of  the  intelli- 
gence, such  as  it  is,  of  dogs  or  horses?  And  is 
the  intelligence  of  our  own  male  not  immeasura- 
bly superior  to  theirs?  May  I  never  be  thought 
to  dispraise  his  natural  virtues,  or  to  lay  undue 
stress  upon  those  infirmities  which  clog  his  foot- 
steps !  To  speak  quite  frankly,  I  see  no  limit  to 
the  results  which  could  be  obtained  from  men, 
if  our  own  sex  were  properly  brought  up.  The 
capture  and  exploitation  of  the  male,  my  friend, 
is  a  grave,  urgent,  practical  matter.  It  is  no 
dream." 

"  Quite  the  reverse !  It  is  the  most  pleasant 
of  all  your  discoveries.  You  leave  your  age  be- 
hind, O  Manthis,  gasping  for  breath." 

The  exploitation  of  the  male :  it  was  the  cream 
of  her  doctrine,  her  enduring  legacy  to  posterity ; 
and  if  the  women  of  her  country  are  to  this  day 
intent  upon  the  same  ideal,  and  upon  nothing  else 
whatever,  it  is  entirely  due  to  the  teaching  of  that 
delightful  old  druidess  and  pioneer,  the  quite- 
too-chaste-and-venerable  Mother  Manthis,  whose 
"  chance  "  came  shortly  afterwards. 


THEY  WENT  217 

For  the  rest,  she  had  not  always  been  quite 
too  chaste.  Men  thought  differently  once  upon 
a  time,  and  the  great  central  college  at  Karnut, 
in  particular,  confessed  to  a  rooted  prejudice 
against  the  virginal  state  on  the  part  of  those 
who  were  destined  to  instruct  others  in  the  ways 
of  the  world.  Wisely,  perhaps.  For  who,  igno- 
rant in  knowledge  of  mankind,  shall  be  able  to 
instil  notions  of  right  conduct  into  the  minds  of 
the  young?  It  was  thus  that  Man  this,  though 
aloof  from  passions  nowadays,  remained  tinged 
with  mellow  sympathy,  as  the  clouds  of  evening 
wear  their  rosy  livery  after  the  sun  has  set. 
She  had  not  lacked  the  necessary  experience 
long  ago.  Far  from  it!  A  certain  of  her  love 
affairs,  with  a  young  nobleman  from  Tarragona, 
proved  to  be  —  as  she  once  told  the  sentimental 
old  queen  — "  a  liberal  education." 

"Ah,"  she  had  added,  in  a  burst  of  confi- 
dence, "if  all  men  were  like  that!  They  are 
not." 

"  Or  like  my  wonderful  stranger  on  the  em- 
bankment," thought  the  other.  "  I  wonder 
where  he  now  is.  He  promised  to  come  again. 
What  will  happen  if  he  does?  And  I  wonder  — 
I  wonder  whether  he  ever  painted  his  boat 
blue?" 

Aithryn's  boat,  at  that  moment,  was  being 
overhauled  with  a  view  to  putting  to  sea;  over- 


218  THEY  WENT 

hauled  and  repainted  bright  green,  blue  being  a 
colour  which  the  sovereign  rather  disliked. 

The  druidess,  for  all  her  wisdom  and  insight, 
knew  nothing  of  these  matters.  Yet,  as  she 
glanced  towards  the  distant  city,  she  realized 
that  a  change  was  taking  place  within  its  walls. 
The  influence  of  Theophilus  over  the  princess  had 
become  a  common  subject  of  talk.  Little  cared 
Manthis  who  this  Greek  might  be,  provided  he 
left  her  girls  alone !  She  regarded  him  as  a  man 
of  considerable  talent  who,  like  all  too  many  of 
his  kind,  misused  his  natural  gifts.  Somehow  or 
other,  she  found  herself  unable  to  read  his 
Aivenn.  That  of  the  city,  however,  was  plain 
to  her  understanding;  it  was  doomed.  Partly 
for  this  reason  she  had  moved  the  college  hither, 
out  of  the  way  of  harm;  and  partly  by  reason 
of  the  growing  viciousness  of  the  place.  What- 
ever happened  out  yonder,  her  children,  the  em- 
bodiment of  her  aspirations,  should  survive  to 
form  the  nucleus  of  a  better  community. 

And  her  thoughts  went  back  to  the  pupils. 
Of  those  things  which  lay  nearest  her  heart  she 
often  spoke  to  the  more  advanced  of  them  with  a 
fair  amount  of  freedom ;  it  was  part  of  a  "  pure 
instruction  " ;  never  had  she  dared  to  put  her 
thoughts  as  clearly  as  she  would  have  liked,  on 
this  wise: 

"Women  in  recent  times  have  made  a  mis- 


THEY  WENT  219 

take.  They  have  tried  to  be  useful.  The  useful 
woman  is  the  worst  of  all.  Take  your  choice, 
children:  be  useless  or  indispensable.  Be  in- 
dispensable! Catch  your  male  and  put  him  in 
harness.  Make  him  forget  his  dreams,  his 
quarrelling  and  loafing  habits;  keep  him  on 
earth  and  tire  him  out.  Then  appear  as  his  re- 
ward, his  friend,  his  saviour.  That  is  the  way 
to  make  him  healthy  and  grateful.  Never  forget 
that  he  is  a  mere  incident  in  your  lives;  a  bul- 
lock to  draw  your  cart  —  docile  or  obstinate  ac- 
cording as  he  is  treated.  Appeal  to  his  feelings, 
children,  and  restrain  your  own.  Where  woman 
masters  her  feelings,  there  the  family  prospers. 
The  gods,  in  their  great  wisdom,  have  given  to 
man  one  sense  too  many.  Touch  that  sense; 
touch  it  with  artful  moderation,  as  you  are 
taught  to  touch  a  lyre,  and  you  have  him!  He 
is  the  weakest  of  the  weak " 

At  this  point  of  her  meditations  she  raised  her 
eyes  and  saw,  as  if  in  answer  to  her  thoughts,  the 
figure  of  Kenwyn  approaching  in  her  direction. 
He  stumbled  absent-mindedly  up  the  hill. 

The  weakest  of  the  weak! 

Beside  him  went  the  babchick,  who  had  been 
deputed  to  meet  the  visitor  and  was  doing  her 
utmost  to  make  herself  agreeable.  The  bab- 
chick had  pleasant  memories  of  their  conversa- 
tion in  the  garden  of  the  beasts.  How  charm- 


220  THEY  WENT 

ingly  he  then  talked  of  dragons  and  sea-gulls! 
She  was  disappointed  to  find  him  so  dull. 

Yet  at  one  moment  it  seemed  as  if  the  pent-up 
soul  of  Kenwyn  was  to  find  relief.  His  lips  had 
been  sealed  since  his  arrival  in  the  town ;  he  had 
made  no  confidences;  now  something  drove  him 
to  trust  in  this  child  and  to  utter  certain  burn- 
ing words  about  love  and  how  that  a  man  should 
follow  the  bright  flame  whithersoever  it  led,  see- 
ing that  in  sweet  union,  and  nowhere  else,  could 
peace  be  found  on  earth  — 

"  He  is  trying  to  make  me  blush,"  thought  the 
babchick.  She  said: 

"  I  think  we  should  hasten  our  steps  to  join 
the  good  Mother  Manthis." 

"Why?" 

"  Because,  for  one  thing,  she  told  me  to." 

The  druidess  was  not  disappointed.  She  was 
prepared  for  his  dejection;  she  knew  the  cause. 
Yet  she  marvelled  at  his  lack  of  self-restraint. 
Irresponsible  creatures  of  sense!  What  an  ob- 
ject lesson,  she  suddenly  thought,  for  her  girls! 
She  would  have  liked  to  call  together  the  wiser 
of  them  and  set  forth  the  case  of  Kenwyn,  ex- 
hibiting him  dispassionately  as  though  he  were 
a  unicorn,  or  suchlike. 

"  This  is  what  I  wished  you  to  see,  children. 
Look  at  him,  and  tell  me  your  conclusions. 
This  is  the  male  of  our  species;  there  are  un- 


THEY  WENT  221 

numbered  multitudes  of  them,  and  they  are  all 
alike,  or  nearly  all  (she  thought  of  Tarragona). 
They  want  to  rule  the  world  —  these  feathers, 
tossed  by  the  wind!  And  when  you  have  in- 
spected him,  turn  your  eyes  yonder." 

"Whither,  O  wise  one?" 

"  Towards  the  beehives.  All  sweetness  and 
order,  and  all  subordinate  to  the  common  good. 
Have  you  ever  seen  bees  wrangling,  or  loafing,  or 
absent-minded?  " 

"  No,  never !  " 

There  was  great  friendliness  in  her  words  of 
greeting  to  Kenwyn,  and  a  smile  on  her  old  face. 
Soon  she  was  telling  him  of  the  difficulties  she 
had  encountered  in  settling  the  school  upon  this 
sterile  rock ;  after  dinner,  she  added,  they  would 
inspect  the  whole  establishment  within  and  with- 
out. Kenwyn  uttered  a  few  commonplace  re- 
marks. 

"  You  have  wrought  a  miracle,"  he  said,  "  judg- 
ing by  what  I  have  already  seen.  In  those  few 
years!  It  shows  what  one  can  do  when  one's 
heart  is  in  the  work." 

"  I  had  many  willing  helpers.  But  the  gar- 
den has  suffered  somewhat  from  drought  this 
year.  Those  radishes,"  she  went  on,  with  that 
eye  for  detail  which  befits  all  rulers  of  men, 
"  they  have  not  thriven  as  they  should." 

"  They  seem  to  have  too  many  leaves," 


222  THEY  WENT 

"  And  small  roots.  It  is  their  nature.  They 
are  the  ancient  Armorican  kind.  I  must  really 
ask  the  princess  if  she  does  not  know  of  a  worth- 
ier variety  from,  some  other  province.  She  is 
wondrously  well  informed  about  such  things; 
nobody  understands  more  than  she  does  about 
fruit  and  vegetables." 

"  I  know,"  said  Kenwyn. 

He  thought  of  the  calm  evening  on  the  em- 
bankment when  she  told  about  her  experiments 
in  grafting.  It  came  back  to  him,  how  they  con- 
versed during  that  moment  of  untroubled  sweet- 
ness while  looking  into  the  sunset-glow.  The 
scent  of  sea-wrack,  the  oozy  shore  dappled  with 
stranded  fishing-boats,  the  islets  great  and  small, 
the  beacon-lights  that  leapt  suddenly  out  of  the 
water  to  guide  home-coming  vessels  —  he  remem- 
bered it  all,  all  save  her  ferocious  treatment  of 
that  poor  pilot.  "Pleasant  here.  .  .  .  Com- 
merce is  safe.  .  .  ."  How  happy  he  had  been! 
And  now  he  was  full  of  perplexity  and  bitter- 
ness. A  wave  of  poignant  grief  swept  over 
him. 

There  reached  his  ears,  at  that  moment,  an 
awe-inspiring  sound,  a  strident  clangour  that 
rose  and  sank  in  a  wail  of  anguish  among  the 
cirque  of  granite  rocks  and  filled  his  soul  with 
terror. 

"It  is  nothing,"  said  Manthis,  observing  his 


THEY  WENT  223 

perturbation.  "  Nothing !  The  call  to  the  mid- 
day meal;  an  Oriental  thing;  it  shouts  when 
smitten.  My  little  ones  amuse  themselves  with 
beating  it  wildly  at  this  hour,  and  I  have  not 
the  heart  to  forbid  them." 

Then,  as  they  descended,  she  went  fully  into 
the  history  of  that  disc  of  bronze.  Many  years 
ago,  she  said,  some  man  of  the  East,  some  grave 
gaff  ron-hued  merchant  clad  in  shining  silks,  had 
laid  the  huge  contrivance,  together  with  other 
more  intelligible  gifts,  at  the  king's  feet.  After 
the  departure  of  the  slit-eyed  stranger  the  mon- 
arch puzzled  and  puzzled  as  to  its  purport,  fail- 
ing at  last  to  turn  it  to  any  use  whatever.  "  I 
give  it  up !  "  he  said. 

He  therefore  presented  the  concern  to  Manthis, 
as  a  plaything  for  her  girls.  "  They  can  roll  it 
up  and  down;  it  will  strengthen  their  muscle," 
he  suggested,  knowing  that  she  attached  impor- 
tance to  such  exercises. 

"  As  for  myself,"  she  continued,  "  I  realized 
that  such  instruments  are  not  made  for  nothing, 
and  determined  to  unravel  its  meaning.  We 
have  only  to  want,  Kenwyn,  and  sooner  or  later 
we  achieve.  It  was  thus  that,  pondering,  I  ob- 
served it  to  be  pierced  at  the  rim.  A  pleasant 
discovery!  For  it  gave  me  the  idea  that  the 
disc  was  to  be  hung  up  by  a  leathern  thong  and 
employed,  I  conjecture,  as  an  agricultural  ad- 


224  THEY  WENT 

junct,  to  frighten  away  birds  from  the  crops  with 
its  awful  voice.  Well,  we  have  changed  its  ob- 
ject! Little  dreamt  the  men  who  fashioned  it 
that,  instead  of  scaring  their  own  little  birds 
from  dinner,  it  now  summons  other  little  birds, 
in  a  distant  country,  to  theirs.  .  .  ." 

Altogether  —  an  unsatisfactory  visit,  although 
the  druidess  talked  herself  weary  while  trying 
to  interest  her  guest.  As  Kenwyn,  late  in  the 
afternoon,  rose  to  leave,  he  said  something  polite 
about  the  modest  manners  of  her  pupils  and 
their  pretty  faces,  adding  : 

"Your  little  babchick,  I  fear,  has  found  me 
rather  dull  today." 

"  Children  are  not  always  easy  to  please,"  she 
replied. 

It  was  true.  That  young  person  took  occa- 
sion, after  his  departure,  to  tell  the  others  her 
opinion  of  the  Christian. 

"He  is  stupider  than  I  thought,"  she  de- 
clared. 

"  They  often  are,"  said  Manthis,  who  had  over- 
heard the  remark.  "  It  rests  with  you,  children, 
to  improve  their  minds." 

Whereupon  the  babchick,  presuming  on  her  ex- 
ceptional status,  drew  nigh  to  the  druidess  and, 
whispering  in  her  ear,  posed  a  direct  question. 
She  asked: 

"  When  will  he  be  sacrificed?  " 


THEY  WENT  225 

"  Tonight,"  said  Manthis,  who  never  told  a 
lie. 

"Oh,Belen!" 

"  Now  run  away,  child." 

Left  to  herself,  the  druidess  reflected  awhile 
upon  the  situation.  She  thought  of  Kenwyn 
with  neither  pity  nor  contempt,  but  a  kind  of 
deep  despair.  He  might  have  been  a  friend,  a 
helper ;  they  might  have  worked  together  for  the 
common  cause  of  mankind,  had  he  not  been  one 
of  those  impulsive  ones.  Feathers!  Creatures 
of  violence,  or  wrapped  in  fond  illusions!  She 
remembered  Kenwyn's  predecessor,  that  grey- 
haired  horror;  she  thought  of  certain  prominent 
males  —  of  the  doting  king,  of  Ando  the  men- 
dacious parasite,  and  Lelian  hide-bound  in  prej- 
udice and  many  other  of  the  highest  nobles  in 
the  land  —  drunkards,  boasters,  wife-beaters: 
what  an  assemblage !  And  these  things  want  to 
rule  the  world!  Grimly  she  set  her  teeth,  more 
determined  than  ever  to  do  her  duty  by  the  chil- 
dren. .  .  . 

Day,  meanwhile,  was  declining.  The  boat  ap- 
proached the  shore.  Would  he  see  her? 

She  stood  on  the  embankment,  with  Harre"  at 
her  side.  One  would  almost  have  said  she  was 
awaiting  his  arrival,  had  she  not  been  a  princess. 
She  laid  her  hand  on  his  arm,  and  smiled.  Never 
had  she  spoken  so  endearingly.  .  .  . 


CHAPTER  XVII 

NIGHT  descended  —  hot,  moonless  night. 
The  princess  was  reclining  on  a  couch 
at  the  summit  of  her  tower  and  watch- 
ing a  star,  one  single  star,  which  had  begun  to 
shine  overhead  with  steady  flame.  On  earth, 
meanwhile,  arose  a  merry  twinkling  of  lights; 
they  radiated  from  the  harbour  region,  gleaming 
brightest  at  street  corners  where  those  turrets 
of  brass  threw  their  fiery  reflection  into  the  sky. 
The  familiar  sounds  of  nightfall  climbed  up  to 
her  ears  in  confused  laughter  and  song  —  loudest 
of  all,  a  chorus  of  drunken  sailors  hard  by,  on  the 
embankment.  Beyond  the  town  walls  every- 
thing lay  shrouded.  Grey  mists  were  crawling 
about  the  plain. 

She  glanced  down  upon  the  water  that 
breathed  softly  against  the  sea-wall.  Far  away, 
ever  so  far,  were  discernible  a  pair  of  dusky  red 
spots  on  two  sister  islets,  light-houses  whose  bea- 
cons, fed  through  the  hours  of  darkness,  guided 
home-coming  vessels  towards  the  entrance  of  the 
channel.  She  was  pleased  at  the  sight. 

"Commerce  is  safe,"  she  thought.  "All  is 
well." 

226 


THEY  WENT  227 

She  listened  awhile  to  the  waves;  that  old, 
old  music  which  had  often  lulled  her  to  sleep. 
Would  there  be  much  sleep  tonight? 

Impossible  that  this  tranquil  ocean  should  ever 
grow  into  a  monster  threatening  the  security  of 
the  land.  How  calm  it  lay  there!  Yet  The- 
ophilus  had  of  late  dwelt  upon  the  hazards  of 
the  embankment,  and  implored  her  to  obtain  pos- 
session of  that  key  at  the  king's  girdle.  She 
invariably  put  him  off;  "tomorrow,"  she  would 
say.  Her  friend  appeared  to  have  grown  more 
timorous  than  formerly.  He  talked  in  dark 
words  about  Aithryn  and  the  All-Highest,  as 
though  they  were  in  league  together  for  the  de- 
struction of  all  that  lay  at  her  feet  —  of  those 
buildings  in  which  she  took  such  pride.  Let 
them  come !  she  thought.  Theophilus  would  deal 
with  them.  She  had  blind  confidence  in  her  mas- 
ter. All  was  well. 

Then,  only  a  few  days  ago,  he  had  once  more 
spoken  earnestly  of  founding  another  city  else- 
where. 

"  Sometimes  I  think  we  are  wasting  our  time 
here,"  he  had  said.  "  What  can  one  do  with  a 
site  like  this?  All  flat!  We  need  hills  and 
woodlands  and  rivulets  and  waterfalls  to  play 
with.  Only  under  such  conditions  can  we  hope 
to  rear  a  town  that  shall  be  worthy  of  our  efforts. 
Nothing  will  ever  avail  to  diversify  this  scene. 


228  THEY  WENT 

We  need  winding  ways,  and  unexpected  vistas 
and  a  luminous  river  and  sunshine,  more  sun- 
shine, glinting  sunshine,  to  light  up  the  bravery 
of  our  ideas.  This  place  is  past  redemption. 
Fogs  and  mists !  It  is  beginning  to  sicken  me." 

There  were  moments  when  the  prospect  of 
leaving  her  creation  tormented  the  princess 
acutely.  At  other  times  she  was  in  calmer  mood. 
She  felt  the  weight  of  his  argument;  she  beheld 
visions  of  that  more  splendid  abode  which  he  con- 
jured up  before  her  eyes;  she  called  to  mind  his 
words  about  building  anew  "  with  ever  fresh  en- 
thusiasm and  ever  deeper  insight."  Here  or  else- 
where—  what  mattered  it,  so  long  as  he  re- 
mained at  her  side? 

"  I  am  ready  to  go  when  you  are,"  she  had 
replied,  wondering  none  the  less  why  Theophilus, 
who  took  such  manifest  pleasure  in  his  work  here, 
should  be  ready  to  relinquish  it  at  a  moment's 
notice.  The  man  was  full  of  contradictions! 
"  He  seems  to  be  so  attached  to  this  town.  .  .  . 
It  sounds  as  if  he  were  trying  to  convince  not  me, 
but  himself,"  she  decided. 

"  I  know  a  most  favourable  spot,"  he  had  said, 
as  though  speaking  to  himself. 

"Is  it  far  off?" 

"  My  boat  could  take  us  there." 

Perhaps  on  yonder  star,  she  now  thought. 
Why  not?  Everything  seemed  to  be  possible  in 


THEY  WENT  229 

her  present  state  of  exaltation.  She  was  losing 
touch  with  reality.  She  lived  in  a  dream,  learn- 
ing and  creating. 

Then  he  had  spoken  again : 

"The  All-Highest  —  I  distrust  him.  He 
thinks  of  usefulness.  He  moves  in  a  mysterious 
way  and  chooses  disreputable  implements  to  do 
his  bidding.  I  could  tell  you  queer  tales  about 
him.  Queer  tales." 

"  My  dear  friend,  I  know  them  all." 

So  she  did.  Kenwyn  had  told  her  as  much 
about  the  All-Highest  as  he  knew  himself,  which 
was  more  than  enough  for  most  people. 

"  Yet  sometimes,"  said  Theophilus,  "  I  feel 
almost  sorry  for  him.  He  is  so  old !  It  must  be 
disheartening  to  have  done  good  work  once  upon 
a  time,  and  now  to  be  laughed  at.  I  only  wish 
he  were  not  so  fond  of  goodness,  like  that  red- 
haired  papa  of  yours,  who  has  gone  over  to  the 
Christians.  They  are  very  intimate  just  now, 
in  consequence.  What  says  Ando?  Make  no 
friend  of  a  red-haired  man.  He  has  been  a  men- 
ace ever  since  that  accident  to  his  skull.  I  wish 
it  had  been  cloven  outright !  " 

She  was  astonished  at  this  savage  remark. 
It  was  the  first  bitter  word  she  had  heard  from 
his  lips.  She  said : 

"  That  funny  little  man?  Really,  Theophilus, 
I  do  not  know  which  of  the  two  is  the  more 


230  THEY  WENT 

ridiculous.     Neither   is   worth   talking   about." 

"  Pardon  me.  Everything  is  worth  talking 
about." 

"  Then  tell  me  a  little  more  concerning  those 
pillars  of  Carystian  marble " 

He  interrupted  grumpily : 

"  I  am  not  in  the  mood  for  discussing  mar- 
bles." 

Decidedly,  her  friend  was  growing  somewhat 
nervous.  .  .  . 

Midnight  came  and  went.  Not  a  breath  of 
wind.  The  air  became  sultrier  than  ever,  and 
still  she  waited.  Sounds  from  below  were  fewer, 
fainter;  that  band  of  tipsy  sailors  had  not  yet 
made  an  end  of  their  revel.  She  leaned  over,  try- 
ing to  catch  the  sense  of  their  words. 

"  Something  about  love  —  about  women,"  she 
concluded,  with  disgust.  Drunkards  and  singers 
of  low  songs  —  beasts  of  the  earth !  What  forms 
of  happiness  men  sought!  She  thought  of  a 
newly-planned  suburb  beyond  the  northern  gate, 
and  found  pleasure  in  contrasting  her  own  re- 
fined strivings  with  those  of  the  vile  brutes  down 
below.  What  did  they  know  of  such  things? 
Bawling  their  coarse  natures  into  the  night! 
The  ideas  men  have  of  love  and  life!  She  was 
shocked  at  their  c rudeness. 

Beside  her,  on  the  parapet,  lay  the  bronze 
thing  which  Lelian  had  wrought. 


THEY  WENT  231 

A  pretty  toy ;  it  worked  well.  "  I  must  say," 
she  mused,  "  that  old  fellow  with  his  long  hair 
and  laughable  breeches  —  he  is  not  such  a  sim- 
pleton as  he  looks." 

Some  lights  went  out ;  soon  a  few  more.  Those 
two  ruddy  flames  were  still  ablaze,  far  at  sea. 
They  appeared  to  have  grown  in  size;  they  glared 
angrily  out  of  the  gloom,  like  the  red  eyes  of  a 
wolf.  Suddenly  she  remembered  eyes  of  another 
kind,  eyes  tender  and  pleading;  would  she  see 
them  before  the  murky  dawn,  when  sea-swallows 
begin  to  twitter  and  skim  over  the  waves?  Then 
indeed  —  then  all  would  be  well. 

He  was  passable.  Whether  that  grain  of  per- 
sonal attraction,  thrown  into  the  balance,  might 
have  helped,  as  Theophilus  fancied,  to  guide  her 
conduct?  No.  Her  friend  was  mistaken.  The 
deed  must  be  done  in  every  case;  nevermore 
could  she  lose  her  master,  her  inspirer.  If  he 
were  to  depart  —  it  was  unthinkable !  None  the 
less 

"  I  am  purging  myself  and  changing,"  she  de- 
cided. "  I  am  changed.  He  is  the  last." 

The  reign  of  Heussa,  Queen  of  Terrors,  was 
drawing  to  its  close. 

And  now  a  breeze  sprang  up,  fraught  with 
chilly  moisture  from  the  low-lying  plain.  She 
shivered,  thinking,  perhaps,  of  all  the  comforts 
in  that  chamber  down  below.  And  still  she 


232  THEY  WENT 

waited,  with  eyes  fixed  upon  that  door  which  led, 
by  a  stairway  of  cedar-wood,  into  the  lower 
regions  of  her  tower.  Dawn  was  at  hand.  .  .  . 

"  The  Christian  preacher,  I  think." 

"Indeed?  Go  to  bed,  Harr6."  The  devoted 
blue  innocent,  as  usual,  tripped  off. 

Filled  with  a  wave  of  deep  content,  she  picked 
up  the  bronze  thing  which  Lelian  had  made,  and 
descended  the  steps,  as  usual. 

As  usual  —  ah,  well ! 

He  went. 

A  portico  was  worth  a  preacher. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

NOW  the  town  took  wings,  and  soared 
aloft.  It  happened  —  none  knew  how. 
Yet  all  proceeded  naturally,  despite  the 
feverish  bustle  and  movement  in  the  streets  and, 
above  all,  down  by  the  harbour.  There,  on  those 
congested  quays,  was  a  ceaseless  unloading  of 
foreign  merchandise  —  ebony  and  other  rare 
woods  for  veneering,  ivory  and  tortoiseshell, 
metals  of  many  kinds,  dyes,  ornamental  stones 
such  as  had  never  been  seen  in  the  land  before. 
Foreign  craftsmen,  too,  began  to  appear  on  the 
scene ;  they  worked  in  mosaics  and  statuary,  they 
laid  down  complicated  pavements  and  encrusted 
the  buildings  with  alabaster  traceries  or  fairy- 
like  devices  in  gypsum. 

Whence  had  all  these  things  come?  They  ar- 
rived —  on  one  knew  how.  They  seemed  to 
arrive  quite  naturally.  It  was  inferred  that  The- 
ophilus  had  ties  of  friendship  and  business  con- 
nections in  many  countries,  his  messengers  going 
to  and  fro,  while  he  himself  remained  on  the  spot, 
superintending  matters  of  detail,  of  interior  dec- 
oration, as  well  as  far-reaching  changes  that  were 
already  giving  the  place  a  new  aspect.  Those 

233 


234  THEY  WENT 

clumsy  colonnades  and  savage  wall-paintings  — 
they  went.  A  suburb  was  laid  out  beyond  the 
northern  gate,  shady  promenades  grew  up  on  the 
outer  side  of  the  ramparts,  musty  old  courtyards 
were  replaced  by  gardens  and  trim  fountains; 
there  was  a  watch-tower  now,  half  completed,  at 
the  harbour  entrance  and  a  new  aqueduct,  a 
stilted  monster  more  wondrous  than  the  first, 
began  to  stride  like  a  giant  across  the  plain. 
Ah,  Theophilus!  He  was  different  —  he  was 
altogether  different  from  those  earlier  helpers. 
So  thought  the  princess.  He  was  ever-present 
and  had  lost  all  his  sulkiness  and  nervousness. 
He  had  the  gift  of  inspiring  others  with  his  own 
zeal ;  he  kept  pace  with  her  ideas,  and  his  army 
of  workmen  kept  pace  with  him.  There  was  no 
doubt  about  it:  Theophilus  knew  his  business. 
He  rose  to  the  occasion.  He  performed  wonders. 
He  surpassed  himself. 

The  citizens,  all  save  that  cantankerous  con- 
servative section  to  which  Lelian  belonged,  were 
delighted  with  this  blossoming.  They  looked 
with  joy  at  those  temporary  sawmills  and  marble 
mills,  the  factories  of  cement,  the  smoking  kilns 
where  they  wrought  tiles  of  many  glazes  —  blue 
or  green  or  fire-tinted  like  brass,  the  smithies 
sputtering  flame ;  they  gladly  endured  the  streets 
obstructed,  for  the  while,  with  mortar-troughs 
and  mountains  of  building  blocks  and  masons' 


THEY  WENT  235 

gear  and  scaffoldings  and  ladders.  It  was  all  for 
the  adornment  of  their  city ;  that  city  whose  like 
was  not  to  be  found  in  the  West.  The  princess 
watched  this  transformation  in  ecstasy,  wonder- 
ing whether  it  could  be  real.  "  I  shall  wake  up 
presently  from  my  dream,"  she  would  say  — 
"  with  what  sadness !  "  For  everything  went  as 
she  desired  it;  nearly  everything;  not  quite 
everything. 

She  would  have  wished,  for  example,  to  im- 
prove the  fagade  of  that  massive  old  structure, 
the  former  college  of  Manthis,  lumber-room  of 
rusty  armour,  in  order  to  make  it  harmonize  with 
the  rest  of  them,  beautified,  as  they  now  were, 
with  snowy  fronts  and  a  line  of  graceful  balus- 
trades. It  stood  there  all  forlorn  and  out  of 
place  in  its  new  surroundings,  as  though  it  had 
been  unaccountably  overlooked  in  the  general  re- 
juvenation of  the  street.  Theophilus,  to  her  sur- 
prise, refused  to  have  it  altered  and,  on  her  in- 
sisting, became  so  rude  as  to  call  her  a  "  tasteless 
young  woman,"  a  speech  which  nearly  made  her 
cry,  so  obsequious  had  she  grown  to  his  praise 
or  blame.  Then  she  began  to  wonder  at  this 
singular  whim  on  his  part.  "He  is  trying  to 
please  the  druidess,"  she  concluded. 

Now  it  was  true  that  Manthis  never  took 
kindly  to  Theophilus,  although  he  left  her  girls 
severely  alone.  Maybe  she  was  secretly  vexed  at 


236  THEY  WENT 

herself  for  not  being  able  to  read  his  Awenn  —  a 
thing  which  had  never  happened  to  her  before. 
Whatever  may  have  been  the  reason  for  her  an- 
tipathy to  him,  the  princess,  in  this  case,  was  mis- 
taken. Manthis  was  not  easily  pleased  or  dis- 
pleased about  matters  of  architecture ;  she  strove 
to  mould  the  heart  of  man,  not  stones.  The- 
ophilus  and  his  notions  were  no  concern  of  hers. 
She  told  the  young  lady  that  she  cared  nothing 
what  happened  to  that  building;  the  place  had 
served  its  end ;  she  had  no  further  use  for  it,  see- 
ing that  her  children,  thank  Belen,  were  safe  on 
their  island.  Then  she  took  occasion  to  drop 
some  guarded  but  weighty  words  .  .  .  ivhither 
trending? 

Whither  trending? 

Manthis  being  the  only  person  on  earth,  save 
Theophilus,  for  whom  the  princess  felt  a  certain 
awe,  those  words  caused  her  so  much  anxiety 
that  she  finally  repeated  them  to  her  friend. 

Whereupon  the  Greek,  for  the  first  time  since 
she  had  known  him,  burst  into  a  fit  of  genuine 
laughter.  He  cried : 

"  Fancy  listening  to  that  unmentionable  old 
she-fool ! " 

"  You  said,  Theophilus?  " 

"  Manthis  would  clip  your  wings.  She  would 
make  you  bear  children." 

The  princess  shuddered. 


THEY  WENT  237 

"  I  believe  you  are  right,"  she  replied,  after  a 
pause.  "  Children.  .  .  .  The  things  she  teaches 
those  girls!  That  poem,  of  which  nobody  has 
ever  understood  a  single  word,  and  which  takes 
twenty  years  to  learn " 

"  While  we  rear  a  city  in  twenty  days." 

"  I  have  heard  them  chanting  parts  of  it, 
Only  think !  My  parents  were  once  on  the  point 
of  sending  me  to  her  college.  What  a  prospect ! 
Manthis  wants  us  to  be  like  ants,  who  spend  their 
lives  in  collecting  food  for  their  offspring,  and 
then  make  more  offspring  in  order  to  be  able 
to  collect  more  food.  Toiling  for  eternity  to 
nourish  creatures  yet  unborn,  and  all  exactly 
alike.  What  a  prospect.  She  says  women  need 
only  want " 

"  Women  want  all  the  time." 

"  She  knows  nothing  of  women,"  replied  the 
princess.  "  She  thinks  they  should  be  like  her- 
self." 

"  She  thinks  of  usefulness.  What  have  we  to 
do  with  usefulness?  She  ends,  where  we  begin. 
Manthis  is  the  herd  that  procreates.  We  are 
the  lonely  ones,  who  create." 

"  You  are  right,  Theophilus." 

She  had  accustomed  herself  of  late  to  say 
"  you  are  right "  even  on  those  occasions  when 
her  friend  was  manifestly  in  the  wrong. 

If  the  external  character  of  that  building  re-" 


238  THEY  WENT 

mained  as  it  was,  its  interior  underwent  a 
change.  A  handful  of  those  once-despised 
dwarfs  were  ordered  to  cleanse  the  place,  to 
furbish  up  the  mildewy  weapons  and  range  them 
in  good  order.  They  finished  the  work  in  a  sin- 
gle night ;  it  was  little  short  of  a  miracle.  Those 
bucklers  and  war-chariots  and  other  forgotten 
military  implements  —  they  gleamed  as  in  the 
fighting  days  of  yore.  Then  Theophilus  bought 
many  more  things  from  the  citizens,  ancient 
tapestries  and  enamels  and  jewellery  and  gar- 
ments, and  stored  them  within. 

"  On  sunny  days,"  he  told  the  princess,  "  our 
visitors  may  inspect  your  garden  of  beasts. 
When  it  rains,  they  shall  come  hither  to  read 
within  these  walls  the  history  of  the  town  and 
extract  therefrom  a  noble  pleasure." 

"  A  happy  idea,"  she  replied  musingly.  "  I  be- 
gin to  understand." 

"  Lelian  the  armourer  shall  live  here.  He  can 
explain  the  meaning  of  these  objects  better  than 
any  one." 

She  hazarded : 

"  Are  you  trying  to  please  the  old  man?  " 

"  There  is  no  pleasing  Lelian.  He  thinks  the 
end  of  the  world  is  at  hand." 

Theophilus  happened  to  be  right.  There  was 
no  pleasing  Lelian.  He  agreed  to  the  proposal 
—  who  could  refuse  the  princess  anything?  Had 


THEY  WENT  239 

lie  not  watched  her  growth  with  a  kind  of  sacred 
joy,  and  fashioned  brooches  and  bracelets  for 
her,  in  sport,  when  she  was  still  a  little  child? 
He  therefore  accepted  the  position,  but  fulfilled 
his  duties  in  a  half-hearted,  gloomy,  and  indeed 
unsatisfactory  manner,  moping  and  mumbling 
about  the  place,  or  fondling  the  old  arrows  and 
then  shaking  his  head  dolefully.  He  spoke  lit- 
tle; his  hand  shook;  a  palsied  lethargy  sat  in 
his  bones.  It  was  as  if  the  associations  of  that 
spot  filled  him  with  unutterable  grief.  He  grew 
ever  more  silent,  more  dejected,  sitting  there  for 
long  hours,  with  bowed  head  and  one  finger  laid 
along  his  nose.  "  Let  me  think,"  he  would  say. 

They  were  on  the  point  of  sending  him  home 
to  his  workshop  when  one  day,  on  entering,  they 
beheld  a  sorrowful  sight.  Lelian  stood  in  the 
centre  of  what  had  once  been  the  girls'  Hall  of 
Assembly,  upright  as  though  rooted  to  earth, 
with  eyes  fiercely  staring.  An  apparition  of  the 
past !  He  was  crowned  with  a  garland  of  flowers 
and  decked  in  armour  from  top  to  toe;  a  sword 
hung  at  his  side,  a  shield  on  his  arm,  and  in 
either  hand  he  grasped  a  mighty  lance,  firm- 
planted  on  the  ground.  There  he  stood  plumb, 
with  legs  apart  like  a  warrior  of  bygone  ages  - 
stark  mad. 

Theophilus      turned     aside.     The     spectacle 
seemed   to   cause   him   pain. 


240  THEY  WENT 

"  Old  times,"  said  the  princess,  while  a  shad- 
owy recollection  of  Kenwyn's  visit  to  the  ar- 
moury flitted  through  her  mind.  Then  as  her 
eye,  more  trained  to  beauty  than  in  the  days  of 
that  Christian,  lingered  admiringly  on  Lelian's 
mail-clad  form,  she  added : 

"  I  must  say,  he  looks  well.  He  is  the  fairest 
object  in  this  building.  If  all  men  lost  their 
wits  so  prettily,  the  world  would  be  a  brighter 
place." 

Her  companion  observed : 

"  He  has  a  reputation  to  keep  up." 

"  He  had,  my  good  friend." 

It  was  the  same  with  the  king's  palace.  The- 
ophilus  refused  to  touch  a  stone  of  that  struc- 
ture, which  therefore  remained  (so  the  princess 
vowed)  hopelessly  barbaric  and  out  of  keeping 
with  the  rest  of  the  city.  Many  a  time  had  she 
tried  to  impress  her  own  notions  upon  the  build- 
ing; her  father  insisted  upon  leaving  it  un- 
touched. Now  she  counted  on  the  Greek,  and  he 
also  failed  her.  Again  she  marvelled  at  his  de- 
cision. "  He  is  trying  to  please  the  old  man," 
she  concluded,  remembering  how  sternly  her  par- 
ent had  forbidden  any  alterations  in  the  simple 
military  character  of  his  dwelling,  ^gain  she 
was  mistaken.  The  monarch  appeared  to  be  in- 
different to  what  happened  to  his  own  or  any 
other  house;  almost  dazed,  in  fact,  with  the  re- 


THEY  WENT  241 

cent  turn  of  events,  though  he  still  took  delight 
in  "  directing  the  operations  "  as  he  called  it, 
and  splashing  himself  with  mortar  and  ordering 
the  masons  about.  Maybe  he  fancied  he  was 
building  the  town  as  in  the  days  of  that  Koman 
engineer  who,  forty  years  earlier,  in  fear  and 
trembling,  had  laid  out  those  quays  and  road- 
ways under  his  superintendence. 

The  princess  implored  Theophilus  to  let  her 
have  her  way. 

"  So  dingy  and  full  of  draughts !  And  only 
one  storey !  Do  let  us  make  it  habitable !  That 
banqueting  hall,  with  its  uncomfortable  benches ! 
I  beseech  you,  Theophilus,  in  the  name  of 
beauty " 

"  Is  there  no  beauty  in  its  grim  outlines? 
Must  everything  be  new  and  glittering?  Must 
I  violate  my  feelings  in  order  to  humour  your 
mischievous  caprices?  Come  now!  Have  you 
no  respect  for  such  memorials,  for  those  wonder- 
ful grey  blocks  with  their  tawny  lichen,  and  the 
story  they  tell?  Are  you  never  going  to  grow 
up?  I  am  shocked  at  your  lack  of  reverence." 

"  Forgive  me !  Help  me  to  understand.  I 
think  I  see  your  point  of  view." 

"  I  fear  not." 

"  Now  I  have  grieved  you.  Oh,  Theophilus  — 
why  are  you  so  sensitive?  " 

The  monarch  remained  indifferent.     That  ven- 


242  THEY  WENT 

erable  personage  had  changed  considerably.  His 
face  was  now  fat  and  rosy  and  smiling ;  men  said 
he  had  grown  younger  —  younger  and  fonder. 
He  still  rode  along  the  sea-wall;  he  still  befud- 
dled himself  and  played  chess;  he  still  talked 
abundantly  —  more  abundantly  than  ever,  they 
declared,  and  to  less  purpose.  Sometimes  he 
said  bitter  and  dark  words.  As  to  altering  his 
palace 

"  It's  all  one  to  the  king,"  he  remarked  cheer- 
ily. "All  one!  I  made  a  couple  of  wars  and 
founded  a  city,  and  now  they  may  do  what  they 
please.  The  stupid  old  house,  always  standing 
there!  Let  them  pull  it  over  my  head.  Let 
them  paint  it  green,  inside  and  out,  and  them- 
selves too.  I  will  direct  the  operations  as  usual, 
though  these  workmen,  I  must  say,  are  apt  to  set 
my  nerves  on  edge.  There  is  only  one  thing  I 
still  desire,  and  it  never  comes.  .  .  .  Old  men  are 
sometimes  unhappy.  .  .  .  She  could  have  it  this 
very  moment,  if  she  cared  to  ask  for  it.  What 
says  Ando?  " 

Ando  wagged  his  head  and  said  a  good  deal; 
nothing  to  the  point. 

"  You  are  a  dull  dog,  Ando ;  a  moulting  peli- 
can. Bad  company  for  a  king." 

In  this  respect  the  court  prophet  was  neither 
better  nor  worse  than  the  rest  of  them.  They 


THEY  WENT  243 

were  all  dull  dogs ;  no  one  understood  what  was 
weighing  on  his  mind  save  possibly  the  queen, 
who  kept  her  own  counsel.  She,  poor  lady,  had 
not  grown  younger;  she  was  sadly  aged.  She 
wandered  about  the  house  in  tremulous  and  be- 
wildered fashion,  and  spent  long  hours  counting 
the  spoons,  even  those  of  wood  and  horn,  "  for 
who  knows  what  will  happen  next?  "  she  said. 
There  was  often  a  tear  in  the  corner  of  her  eye, 
while  she  begged  her  daughter  to  visit  the  palace 
— "not  for  myself,  dear  child,  oh,  not  for  my- 
self! Only  to  give  pleasure  to  your  poor  old 
father."  In  vain.  The  princess  always  had 
something  else  to  do.  She  kept  out  of  the  way 
of  her  parents,  and  seemed  to  have  forgotten 
their  very  existence.  She  never  gratified  them, 
nowadays. 

How  hard  she  had  grown  —  so  far,  at  least,  as 
these  old  folks  and  their  wishes  were  concerned ! 

The  only  thing  she  cared  for  was  the  good 
opinion  of  Theophilus,  whose  slightest  word 
of  reproach  would  make  her  wince  and  feel 
ashamed.  Yet  there  was  no  cause  for  shame. 
Everything  proceeded  as  by  a  miracle.  The  town 
was  putting  on  a  fresh  and  definite  face ;  doubts 
and  hesitations  and  experiments  were  at  an  end. 
Would  it  ever  be  completed?  Sometimes,  in- 
flamed with  a  fateful  sense  of  hurry,  she  de- 


244  THEY  WENT 

spaired  of  that  result.  Still  so  much  to  do! 
She  had  found  it  granite ;  she  would  leave  it  gold. 

Gold.  .  .  . 

Those  dwarfs  —  it  was  almost  past  belief. 
She  smiled  at  her  folly  remembering  how,  not 
long  ago,  she  thought  to  have  exhausted  their 
capacities  and  had  actually  been  on  the  verge  of 
dismissing  them.  What  would  she  now  do  with- 
out their  aid?  For  Theophilus  woke  them  up; 
stirred  their  ambitions  and  wheedled  new  tricks 
and  secrets  out  of  them,  among  other  things,  the 
art  of  crushing  gold  into  powder  and  therewith 
overlaying  rock  or  marble,  or  even  glass  and 
woodwork,  with  a  coat  of  shining  metal.  The 
town,  in  consequence  of  this  discovery,  glowed 
more  beauteously  than  ever.  Yes;  she  would 
leave  it  gold.  The  dwarfs'  work!  And  their 
health  and  spirits  were  altogether  restored. 
How  joyously  they  danced  now,  and  how  their 
songs  resounded,  in  that  queer  village  beyond  the 
eastern  gate  where,  under  a  grove  of  moist  apple 
trees,  the  princess  had  set  apart  a  piece  of  ground 
for  their  habitation!  With  what  strange  obei- 
sances, bending  low  to  earth,  they  used  to  wel- 
come Theophilus  whenever  he  deigned  to  accept 
their  hospitality  at  one  of  those  little  moonlight 
feasts!  The  young  lady  indeed  never  quite  un- 
derstood the  reason  for  these  signs  of  profound 
adoration;  often,  on  witnessing  them,  a  certain 


THEY  WENT  245 

thought  would  obtrude  itself,  a  thought  she 
dared  not  formulate  and  which  Kenwyn,  with  his 
dying  breath,  had  contrived  to  instil  into  her 
mind  — "  tomorrow,  tomorrow/'  she  would  then 
say,  adding  to  calm  hesrelf :  "  No  wonder  they 
venerate  him,  with  talents  like  his."  It  had  be- 
come her  habit  of  late  to  put  off  all  troublesome 
reflections. 

What  happened  to  Yuxo  was  amazing.  He 
was  a  bright  little  fellow  once  more,  young  and 
lively  as  in  the  days  when  he  volunteered  to 
tramp  over  the  hills  and  fetch  Harr£  away  from 
his  blue  parents,  bearing,  in  exchange  for  him, 
a  couple  of  rosy  sea-shells  (the  Alloquisti  were 
inland  folk) .  It  was  the  greatest  miracle  of  all. 

"  You  are  a  wizard,  Theophilus,"  she  cried. 
«  How  did  you  do  it  ?" 

"  By  kindness." 

"  Kindness  ...  I  remember  now !  You  once 
said  we  must  be  kind  to  workers  in  metal." 

She  surveyed  the  head-man  and  pondered  upon 
his  case.  She  called  to  mind  that  harassed, 
demon-haunted  imp,  that  caricature  of  a  dwarf, 
chattering  nonsense  and  convulsed  with  nervous 
twitchings  and  quakings.  The  same  Yuxo.  .  .  . 
Blithely  he  sang  now,  and  frolicked,  and  ham- 
mered—  first  at  the  revel,  first  at  the  forge! 
His  hair  had  grown  brown  and  glossy;  that  im- 
pediment of  speech  was  healed.  There  was  an 


246  THEY  WENT 

end  to  babble  about  screws,  and  the  cool  rhu- 
barb leaf  was  seen  no  more. 

Kindness 

It  was  then  that  the  princess  realized,  for  the 
first  time  in  her  life,  what  kindness  could  do. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  sun  had  gone  to  rest.  Workmen 
trooped  in  boisterous  crowds  to  their 
homes;  a  calm  fell  upon  the  city.  The 
princess  and  her  friend  were  in  the  newly 
finished  portico,  discussing  multitudinous  proj- 
ects. They  sat  overlooking  the  sea,  whose  waves 
broke  with  unwonted  violence  against  the  founda- 
tions of  that  wonderful  structure.  A  veil  of  twi- 
light was  falling;  the  full  moon  rose  up  grandly 
over  mountain  tops  in  the  East. 

The  young  lady  found  herself  in  excellent 
humour.  Her  companion,  on  the  other  hand, 
seemed  to  be  more  preoccupied  than  usual. 

Suddenly  he  said : 

"  The  key,  princess." 

"  I  know.  You  have  often  asked  me  to  take 
it  from  him.  So  I  will." 

"  You  could  have  it  this  very  moment,  if  you 
cared  to  ask  for  it."  He  added,  tentatively :  "  No 
harm,  by  the  way,  in  giving  pleasure  to  that  old 
man.  It  is  ever  so  long  since  you  have  seen  him. 
And  you  are  the  only  person  to  whom  he  would 
give  it." 

Bother  the  old  man,  thought  the  princess. 

247 


248  THEY  WENT 

"  Therefore  ask,  and  it  is  yours." 

Tomorrow,  tomorrow,  she  thought. 

"  Tomorrow  may  never  come,"  observed  the 
Greek,  as  though  in  answer  to  her  unspoken 
words. 

"  Tonight,  then.     I  promise." 

Even  while  uttering  those  words,  she  meant 
to  break  her  promise.  Much  as  she  liked  to 
oblige  her  friend,  she  had  already  made  up  her 
mind  not  to  visit  the  palace,  and  this,  in  spite  of 
another  undertaking  she  had  given  her  mother 
to  appear  in  the  course  of  that  very  evening. 
Why?  She  knew  not  why.  Sheer  wrongness: 
wrongness  and  pride !  It  was  not  those  dancers 
from  the  far  East  who  had  just  arrived  and  were 
to  present  an  exhibition  of  their  skill  at  her  tower 
tonight ;  such  folks  often  came  nowadays,  and  she 
could  have  made  arrangements  for  their  per- 
formance to  take  place  at  any  hour  she  pleased. 
No.  Something  else  had  entered  her  being  and 
impelled  or  inspired  her  not  to  ask  for  that  key. 
She  wondered  herself  what  it  was,  this  spirit  of 
perversity,  this  force  which  drove  her  to  act  as 
she  did. 

"  The  All-Highest "  Theophilus  began. 

"  Still  thinking  about  the  All-Highest?  " 

"  He  cares  little  what  means  he  employs,  so 
long  as  he  attains  his  end.  The  key !  " 

"  Tonight.     I  promise." 


THEY  WENT  249 

The  subject  was  beginning  to  weary  her;  it 
was  setting  her  nerves  on  edge.  To  change  the 
theme  of  conversation,  she  remarked : 

"  How  high  the  tide  is !  And  vapours  are 
rising  up.  We  shall  have  a  downpour  shortly. 
Did  you  ever  notice  that  the  weather  is  apt  to 
turn  at  full  moon?  " 

"  I  did.  I  have  also  made  a  little  calculation, 
princess.  The  tide  will  not  be  full  for  a  good 
while ;  it  will  then  be  higher  than  it  has  been  for 
many  long  years.  If  the  sluice-gate  should  be 
opened !  The  key " 

"  Look !  I  perceive  a  small  boat,  ever  so  far 
away.  It  is  making  for  the  harbour.  Do  you  see 
it,  out  yonder?  A  singular  build,  and  painted 
green,  like  a  little  pea.  More  like  an  apple,"  she 
said,  after  a  pause.  "  Bringing  wine  from  the 
Narbonnensian  province,  if  I  am  not  mistaken." 

The  princess  was  mistaken. 

Theophilus  knew  the  vessel.  He  merely  ob- 
served, as  though  speaking  to  himself: 

"  They  are  great  friends  just  now  —  Aithryn 
and  the  All-Highest.  When  two  good  folks  put 
their  heads  together,  you  may  be  prepared  for 
the  worst." 

"  Still  thinking  about  that  funny  little  man? 
How  distrustful  you  are!  We  have  got  rid  of 
the  Christian,  anyhow.  He  would  have  been  a 
third/' 


250  THEY  WENT 

Her  friend  said  nothing,  while  the  young 
lady's  musings  wandered  backwards  awhile  to 
that  evening,  that  sultry  evening  in  her  tower, 
and  to  what  followed.  She  shuddered  as  a  cer- 
tain thought,  which  she  dared  not  formulate, 
passed  through  her  mind. 

"  It  was  rather  unpleasant,"  she  said.  "  He 
cursed  you  ere  he  died,  and  called  you " 

"  Pray  don't  distress  me  by  going  into  details," 
.Tie  interrupted  hastily.  "  I  am  sufficiently  trou- 
bled. It  is  a  most  annoying  state  of  affairs,  and 
enough  to  make  any  one  low  spirited,  I  assure 
you." 

•He  buried  his  face  in  his  hands. 

"  Why  be  sad?  Follow  my  example.  I  don't 
care  a  pin  about  him;  not  a  pin.  What  do  we 
want  with  monks  here?  Good  riddance!  " 

"  You  are  rather  a  callous  girl." 

"  Now  I  have  grieved  you  again.  Oh, 
Theophilus  —  will  you  never  grow  less  sen- 
sitive? " 

He  shook  his  head  despondingly,  and  said : 

"  The  key." 

That  settles  it,  she  thought.  Nevermore  will 
I  ask  for  that  key.  .  .  . 

She  never  asked  for  it.  She  never  approached 
the  palace  at  all,  despite  her  promise.  Had  she 
done  so,  her  nerves  would  certainly  have  been  set 
on  edge.  For  a  sense  of  unusual  gloom  and  un-  j 


THEY  WENT  251 

easiness  reigned  in  those  halls;  the  queen  could 
do  little  to  enliven  the  company,  and  nothing 
whatever  to  make  them  feel  really  at  home. 
There  was  a  scared  look  in  her  eye ;  she  wandered 
about  like  a  ghost. 

The  king  kept  his  dazed  disappointment  to 
himself.  He  drank  deep.  It  was  his  approved 
method  of  combating  perturbation  of  mind  and 
unpleasant  thoughts.  All  agreed  that  he  had 
seldom  been  quite  so  fuddled,  quite  so  military; 
that  he  was  well-nigh  drunk.  It  was  almost  im- 
possible to  avoid  beating  him  at  chess  —  Ando 
beat  him  twice,  which  made  him  moodier  than 
ever.  So  the  evening  wore  on.  And  still  he 
dipped  his  nose  in  the  tankard,  chattering  mirth- 
lessly, meanwhile,  of  porpoises ;  of  porpoises  and 
daughters.  It  was  soon  observed  that  he  could 
no  longer  pronounce  his  words  correctly.  He 
had  reached  high-water  mark,  and  ought  to  have 
been  put  to  bed.  The  queen,  for  some  unex- 
plained reason,  contrary  to  all  precedent,  and 
as  though  some  demon  inspired  her,  refused  to 
interpose  her  authority  to  that  end.  Suddenly 
a  familiar  idea  seized  the  old  man.  He  cried,  in 
tones  of  command : 

"  Bring  hither  a  strumpet  —  a  trumpet, 
straight  or  curved." 

They  went  down,  as  often  before,  into  the 
trumpetry,  and  fetched  up  an  old  instrument  of 


252  THEY  WENT 

Tyrrhenian  make,  bent  in  the  shape  of  a  swan's 
neck  —  its  mouth  opening  savagely  like  the  gul- 
let of  some  wild  beast. 

"  This  is  music  to  make  the  world  tremble. 
Let  us  blast  a  blow  and  see  whether  it  sounds  the 
same  as  of  yore,  when  I  used  to  summon  my 
enemies " 

He  puffed  out  those  old  cheeks  and  blew  his 
hardest.  Nothing  came  out  of  the  relic  save  an 
inauspicious,  melancholy,  wheezing  note.  None 
the  less  he  repeated,  word  for  word  the  tradi- 
tional formula: 

"  Now,  where  is  the  enemy?  Skulking,  as 
usual?" 

It  was  at  this  moment  that  a  stranger  entered 
as  if  in  answer  to  the  challenge. 

Nobody  took  notice  of  him  at  first ;  men  came 
and  went;  it  was  an  easy-going,  cosmopolitan 
place.  None  the  less,  it  became  plain  from  his 
manner  and  appearance  that  he  was  of  a  rank 
high  enough  to  be  introduced  to  the  sovereign, 
to  whom  he  was  soon  telling  some  untruthful 
tale  about  himself.  The  newcomer  evidently  un- 
derstood how  to  make  himself  agreeable,  for  a 
smile  came  into  the  old  man's  face.  "  Where," 
he  wondered  hazily,  "where  have  I  seen  those 
eyes  before?  Belen  alone  can  tell!  Strangely 
familiar.  .  .  ." 

He  was  more  fuddled  than  he  had  yet  been. 


THEY  WENT  253 

Not  too  fuddled,  however,  to  do  his  duty.  Eight 
royally  he  pulled  himself  together. 

"  You  play  chess?  " 

"  Not  very  well,  I  fear." 

"  Then  I  will  teach  you.  This  one,  for  exam- 
ple, is  the  Fool " 

"  But  I  can  drink/'  said  the  other,  modestly. 

What  drove  him,  that  abstemious  man,  to  utter 
those  words? 

He  drank,  and  seemed  to  grow  younger  and 
ever  more  witty;  he  sported  and  told  tales,  his 
eyes  flashing  with  merriment ;  he  was  like  a  man 
possessed.  They  formed  a  circle  round  him; 
everybody  listened.  And  still  he  drank  and 
jested,  while  the  hours  passed.  An  infection 
caught  them  all;  they  did  as  he  did,  laughing 
and  drinking  uproariously.  The  stranger  alone 
seemed  to  have  his  wits  still  about  him  —  the 
rest  of  them  were  soon  sprawling  about.  It  was 
the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  court  that  such 
a  thing  had  happened.  As  for  the  king,  a  wave 
of  rollicking  mirth  swept  over  him,  and  drowned 
him.  The  last  they  understood  of  his  talk  was 
when  he  likened  his  handsome  and  amusing  guest 
to  a  "  shipload  of  young  sailor  boys  " —  one  of 
those  many  dark  utterances  in  which  he  had  in- 
dulged of  late  and  which  nobody,  not  even  Ando, 
could  interpret.  After  that,  he  grew  speechless. 

Where  was  the  queen? 


254  THEY  WENT 

She  had  disappeared.  Somebody  noticed  her, 
tottering  out  of  the  room  as  in  a  dream,  on  the 
appearance  of  the  stranger. 

Only  one  person  saw  what  then  took  place. 
It  was  the  blue  pest  who,  after  spending  the 
greater  part  of  the  evening  in  the  kitchens,  pok- 
ing his  nose  into  everything  and  teasing  the 
maids  and  scullions,  had  strolled  in  among  the 
assembly,  as  usual,  to  see  what  was  going  on. 
And  when  the  stranger  left  the  building  he  fol- 
lowed into  the  night,  unseen  and  unheard,  as  he 
thought.  For  waves  were  clashing  —  never  had 
they  clashed  so  loudly,  and  the  moon  strove 
vainly  to  pierce  those  vapour-laden  clouds.  .  .  . 

At  the  tower  of  the  princess,  meanwhile,  a 
slightly  different  kind  of  society  had  gathered 
together,  and  a  different  atmosphere  prevailed. 
The  air  was  heavy  with  the  cloying  scent  of 
malobathrum ;  lamps  of  glass,  dangling  from  the 
ceiling  in  ruby-tinted  globes,  threw  a  soft  light 
upon  carpets  and  tapestries,  and  coaxed  mellow 
gleams  out  of  the  silvery  panels  that  lined  the 
doorways.  A  water-organ  was  droning  drowsily, 
all  to  itself,  in  some  inner  chamber. 

They  were  watching  certain  dancers  from  the 
East  who  had  grouped  themselves  on  a  raised 
platform;  slender  figures  with  towering  head- 
dress, swathed  in  citron-hued  robes  and  a  cascade 


THEY  WENT  255 

of  jewels.  Their  naked  arms  and  feet  were  the 
colour  of  gold  —  gold  that  has  lain  untouched 
for  ages.  They  swayed  to  and  fro,  while  the 
faces,  bedaubed  with  thick  layers  of  paint,  re- 
mained impassive  as  waxen  masks.  So  they 
swayed  lithely,  gravely,  ceremoniously,  like 
windflowers  touched  by  the  breeze,  or  like  the 
stems  of  water-lilies  when  the  startled  pike 
shoots  by,  troubling  the  green  slumber  of  the 
mere.  The  princess  was  absorbed  in  the  spec- 
tacle. On  many  other  occasions  had  there  been 
dancers  at  her  tower;  none  such  as  these.  They 
were  clowns  and  posturers,  those  others.  This 
was  a  rite.  Their  arms  and  hands,  especially  — 
those  pointed  fingers  with  tapering  nails  stained 
scarlet  —  they  moved  in  enigmatic,  compelling 
fashion.  She  could  not  help  remarking  to  The- 
ophilus : 

"  What  gracious  attitudes !  Like  idols  —  full 
of  mystery.  And  those  hands  —  there  is  witch- 
craft and  purpose  in  them.  Up  to  this  evening, 
my  friend,  I  thought  ill  of  the  hand  of  man; 
little  I  dreamt  what  a  revelation  of  beauty  it 
might  become.  How  good  it  is  to  see  new  things, 
and  ever  new  things!  I  took  our  hands  and 
fingers  to  be  mere  implements  for  taking  or 
throwing  —  imperfect,  unsightly  implements. 
Now  I  know  better.  What  say  you?  " 


256  THEY  WENT 

The  other  glanced  up  from  his  couch.  He  was 
counting  those  beads  of  his,  in  an  agitated  man- 
ner. He  replied  grumpily : 

"  I  am  not  in  the  mood  for  discussing  dancers." 

"  Still  thinking  about  that  key?  " 

At  this  moment  she  saw  Harre"  standing  at  her 
side.  The  blue  pest  was  dripping  wet.  She  was 
not  surprised  at  this;  he  was  often  in  such  a 
state,  although  never  yet  at  this  hour  of  the  day, 
for  the  Alloquisti,  inland  folk  as  they  were,  had 
a  great  fondness  for  splashing  themselves  with 
water  in  summertime.  What  did  surprise  her, 
what  astonished  and  enraged  her,  was  that  he 
should  be  there  at  all.  He  had  been  forbidden 
to  enter  those  apartments  in  the  evening,  and 
had  hitherto  always  obeyed  the  injunction.  He 
might  circulate  freely  and  take  what  liberties  he 
pleased  at  her  father's  palace;  it  was  a  dull 
place;  the  guests  there  assembled  could  not  pos- 
sibly do  him  harm.  Here  it  was  different. 
Things  were  to  be  seen  (such  as  these  dancers) 
and  things  heard  which,  she  thought,  might  dis- 
quiet his  imagination  and  be  injurious  to  his 
youthful  mind.  The  princess  was  severe  on  such 
matters.  And  therefore,  without  waiting  for  an 
explanation,  she  glanced  sternly  into  his  eyes 
and  said : 

"  Look  at  me.     The  older  you  grow,  the  more 
disobedient.     I  shall  now  do  what  I  threatened. 


THEY  WENT  257 

I  shall  turn  you  into  a  little  pig,  and  take  you 
a  three  months'  sail  beyond  the  Sacred  Kock 
and  throw  you  into  the  sea." 

"  I  have  just  been  thrown  into  the  sea." 

Theophilus  observed: 

"  He  looks  uncommonly  wet.  Ask  him  to  ex- 
plain, princess,  and  turn  him  into  a  pig  after- 
wards. I  should  like  to  see  a  blue  pig." 

Harr6  was  not  clever  at  explaining.  He  had 
come  from  the  palace,  he  said;  everybody  was 
drunk  and  sprawling  about,  even  the  king  him- 
self  

"High- water  mark,"  said  the  young  lady 
angrily.  "  He  ought  to  have  been  put  to  bed 
before  that  stage.  What  was  the  old  woman 
doing?  " 

"The  queen?     She  fainted  away." 

"Let  her  faint!" 

Harre  opened  his  eyes  wide  —  never  would  he 
have  dared  to  speak  of  his  blue  mother  in  such 
words:  as  to  Theophilus  —  he  shut  his  own. 
Perhaps  he  was  shocked. 

The  princess  went  on,  in  a  softer  voice: 
"What  more,  my  child?  Tell  me  everything 
exactly,  from  beginning  to  end.  And  first  of 
all,  why  are  you  pressing  your  elbow  to  your 
side  in  that  unbecoming  fashion?  It  is  not  a 
gracious  attitude  for  a  young  person." 

"  Only  to  prevent  the  blood  from  flowing  out," 


258  THEY  WENT 

said  Harre\  "  That  man  —  he  tried  to  kill  me 
with  his  knife.  Then  he  threw  me  into  the  har- 
bour. He  must  have  eyes  behind  his  head; 
otherwise  he  could  never  have  known  I  was  fol- 
lowing him.  It  is  nothing!"  he  added  with  a 
laugh.  "  You  should  see  my  father's  wounds ! 
We  are  prickly  people." 

There  was  a  hideous  gash  on  the  left  side  of 
his  breast. 

"  How  fortunate,"  remarked  Theophilus,  delv- 
ing down  into  his  deep  pocket.  "  I  happen  to 
have  some  liniment  and  balsam  with  me.  What 
it  is  to  be  an  old  traveller.  One  never  knows 
when  one  may  not  need  these  things." 

"  I  am  glad  I  was  not  wearing  my  deerskin," 
said  Harr6,  while  the  Greek  was  bandaging  his 
wound.  "It.  might  have  got  hacked  about." 

"  Whom  were  you  following? "  the  princess 
enquired.  "  And  why?  " 

"  Because  I  saw  him  take  the  key." 

"  What  key?  " 

"  He  means  the  little  red-haired  man,"  said 
Theophilus,  who  thereupon  went  out,  all  alone. 

It  was  true.  The  sluice-gate  had  been  opened ; 
Aithryn  had  done  his  work.  Water  was  pour- 
ing in,  and  the  tide  not  yet  full!  There  was 
wild  confusion  down  by  the  harbour ;  ships  clash- 
ing against  one  another,  and  half  the  population 
endeavouring  to  scramble  into  them  and  escape 


THEY  WENT  259 

the  disaster.  He  did  not  linger  long,  but  re- 
traced his  steps  towards  the  tower. 

There,  beside  that  gateway  of  ruddy  copper, 
.stood  a  tall  solitary  figure,  huddled  in  a  long 
cape. 

It  was  Aithryn,  the  father,  waiting  for  his 
child. 

The  other  went  up  to  him  in  friendly  fashion 
and,  after  a  civil  enquiry  anent  the  state  of  the 
tide  or  suchlike,  delicately  planted  that  Persian 
>  stuff,  that  elaborate  affair,  that  dagger,  into 
his  midriff.  "  One  mischief  maker  the  less," 
thought  the  Greek  who,  being  a  lonely  unicorn 
i  like  his  charming  disciple,  could  not  bring  him- 
self to  sympathize  with  the  feelings  of  those  that 
belonged  to  another  and  more  respectable  cate- 
gory. 

The  guests  at  the  tower  were  scattered  in  the 
meantime,  news  of  the  catastrophe  having  leaked 
through.  Accompanied  only  by  Harre,  the  prin- 
1  cess  was  gazing  from  the  summit  of  that  building 
upon  the  scene  at  her  feet.  It  was  different  from 
what  it  used  to  be!  Yet  she  was  calm  and 
unmoved;  almost  cheerful.  Theophilus  would 
never  desert  her.  She  saw  the  lower  regions  of 
the  town  already  submerged;  it  would  be  some 
time,  however,  before  the  level  of  the  embank- 
ment could  be  reached.  Scared  groups  of  folk 
'were  scurrying  about  with  lighted  torches,  and 


260  THEY  WENT 

calling  to  each  other  in  many  tongues.  All 
around  was  darkness,  and  wetness,  and  a  hungry 
lapping  of  ocean ;  the  moon  peered  out  of  clouds 
upon  this  watery  desolation.  She  saw,  or 
thought  she  saw,  the  monarch  her  father  can- 
tering distractedly  along  the  sea-wall  on  the 
black  stallion  Morvark,  his  mantle  all  aflutter  in 
the  wind.  The  sight  brought  her  neither  joy 
nor  grief ;  she  merely  reflected : 

"  Perhaps  he  is  looking  for  me,  or  for  his  old 
woman.  He  seems  to  ride  pretty  straight.  I 
must  say,  he  is  a  wonderful  old  man.  Almost 
sober." 

Not  so  Ando.  He  was  not  almost  sober.  He 
kept  it  up;  he  drank  to  excess  that  night.  Un- 
fortunately it  was  water,  which  accounted  for 
the  fact  that  he  was  never  seen  again.  Nor  was 
the  queen  discoverable  for  a  long  while.  They 
told  an  unpleasant  tale  about  her;  they  said  that, 
losing  sight  of  her  consort  while  trying  to  save 
some  object  out  of  the  cellars,  she  had  been 
treacherously  carried  off  in  a  Moorish  vessel,  sold 
to  the  Prince  of  Mogador,  and  thereafter  em- 
ployed by  him  as  housemaid  and,  in  spare  mo- 
ments, governess  to  his  twenty-three  daughters. 
The  report  was  untrue.  She  lived  to  the  end 
of  her  days  with  her  husband,  far  afield,  at  the 
court  of  his  former  enemies  the  Volusinians, 
where  he  had  taken  refuge.  A  marvellous  coin- 


THEY  WENT  261 

cidence!  For  the  ruler  of  these  same  Volusi- 
nians,  forty  years  earlier,  had  afforded  protec- 
tion to  yet  another  noble  fugitive  —  to  wit,  the 
Roman  Ormidius  Limpidus,  an  engineer  of  high- 
est capacity  who,  after  being  detected  in  a  dis- 
reputable intrigue  with  some  high-born  dame  in 
the  household  of  his  country's  proconsul,  had  fled 
thither  for  safety  and,  after  other  adventures, 
lived  to  build  that  great  embankment  which  was 
even  then  cracking  to  pieces  under  the  onslaught 
of  the  waves. 

Gazing  thus  calmly  over  a  prospect  all  sea  and 
moonlight,  the  princess  became  aware  of  a  patch 
of  dusky  spots,  somewhere  beyond  the  eastern 
gate.  They  were  the  crowns  of  a  certain  grove 
of  apple  trees,  emerging  above  the  flood.  She 
knew  them. 

"  My  poor  little  dwarfs !  "  she  cried. 

It  was  the  first  kind  word  she  had  ever  spoken. 

A  voice  at  her  side  remarked : 

"  I  dismissed  them  an  hour  before  sunset. 
They  are  safe  on  the  hills." 

"  I  am  glad.  On  the  hills.  .  .  .  Tramping 
about  the  hills  again,  like  when  they  first  came 
here.  I  wonder  in  which  direction?  " 

Involuntarily  her  glance  turned  towards  the 
mountains.  There  she  beheld  a  wondrous  spec- 
tacle. A  rainbow  hung  in  the  sky,  a  wan,  noc- 
turnal thing  of  mist  and  moonshine  with  colours 


262  THEY  WENT 

feebly  glimmering  —  the  veriest  ghost  of  a  rain 
bow.  She  had  never  seen  its  like  before.  It 
drove  her  thoughts  backwards  —  backwards  to 
Kenwyn  and  his  Christian  doctrines.  She  said : 

"  Now  I  know.  The  All-Highest  dislikes  por- 
ticoes. He  likes  preachers.  Confess,  my  friend, 
that  he  has  been  too  much  for  us.  You  need  no 
longer  be  sorry  for  him.  He  will  not  drown  the 
whole  world,  but  only  our  city.  It  is  rather  in- 
telligent of  him !  He  is  old,  but  none  too  old  to 
laugh.  I  think  — I  think  he  is  laughing  at  us 
now.  And  that  funny  little  red-haired  man  is 
also  cleverer  than  we  imagined." 

She  was  more  than  resigned  to  her  loss;  look- 
ing forward,  indeed,  to  rearing  the  new  city  of 
which  he  had  often  spoken.  The  Greek,  to  her 
astonishment,  did  not  share  this  tranquillity  by 
any  means.  His  brow  contracted  at  her  words, 
and  he  exclaimed,  in  a  sudden  access  of  rage : 

"  Bother  that  envious  adulterer,  who  destroys 
his  own  daughter's  work  and  drowns  a  few  thou- 
sand folk  that  have  never  done  him  any  harm. 
A  pretty  trick;  retribution,  they  call  it.  I  did 
my  best  to  improve  your  town,  and  this  is  what 
happens.  And  bother  the  All-Highest!  Always 
meddling  and  muddling!  As  if  there  were  not 
things  enough  to  be  amended  in  his  own  depart- 
ment   " 

"What    an    outburst,    Theophilus.     I    have 


THEY  WENT     •  263 

never  seen  you  in  such  a  state  before.  You  are 
not  rising  to  the  occasion;  in  fact,  if  I  may  say 
so,  you  seem  to  be  losing  your  temper  seriously. 
Calm  yourself.  Play  with  your  beads." 

"  Bother  my  beads !  " 

The  princess  did  not  know  what  more  to  say  at 
the  moment.  Presently  she  enquired : 

"  Tell  me,  what  became  of  the  little  red-haired 
man?" 

"  He  went,"  said  Theophilus  savagely. 

"  I  am  glad.  Parents  are  queer  folk,  as  you 
have  already  observed.  And  you  listen  to  me. 
Have  you  forgotten  what  you  told  me  about  that 
other  site  for  a  town?  Let  us  be  off.  This  is  no 
place  for  us.  I  also  understood,"  she  ventured 
to  add,  "I  understood  you  were  accustomed  to 
such  little  disappointments.  Seasoned,  I  mean. 
Have  you  forgotten?  " 

Her  friend  did  not  reply  at  once.  He  seemed 
to  be  lost  in  thought ;  rueful  and  wrestling  with 
his  spirit.  After  a  long,  despairing  glance  at 
the  drowned  city,  he  said : 

"  You  are  right,  princess.  This  is  no  place  for 
us.  Hard,  none  the  less,  to  see  one's  handicraft 
annihilated.  I  am  quite  seasoned,  as  you  say  — 
quite!  At  least,  I  ought  to  be.  I  ought  never 
to  expect  anything  else,  no,  never.  I  have  been 
through  so  much  trouble  of  this  kind  —  if  you 
only  knew !  And  yet  —  ah,  princess,  why  was  I 


264  THEY  WENT 

not  born  with  a  stony  heart  like  yours?  It  has 
been  denied  me;  and  therein  lies  the  bitterness. 
Do  what  I  will,  I  grow  attached  to  my  work.  It 
breaks  me,  to  watch  the  agony  of  fair  things.  I 
would  give  all  my  wealth,  down  to  the  last  farth- 
ing, if  such  shocks  could  be  avoided;  truly  I 
would.  A  positive  wrench,  every  time " 

"  Don't  cry  over  it,  my  good  friend.  I  also 
know  something  about  shocks  and  wrenches.  I 
had  a  little  one  not  long  ago."  She  was  think- 
ing  of  that  Christian,  and  of  the  copper  con- 
trivance which  Lelian  had  made. 

"  You  are  right,"  he  replied  in  calmer  mood. 
"  The  embankment  is  about  to  crack.  The  sea 
will  sweep  over  it  in  an  hour  or  less.  Look  at 
the  water  rising.  .  .  .  All  in  vain!  Can  you 
bear  the  thought  of  it?  And  things  were  doing 
so  splendidly;  it  is  indeed  discouraging.  It 
hurts!  .  .  .  Well,  let  us  be  off  then.  No  harm, 
by  the  way,  in  taking  this  little  nightmare  of 
yours  with  us.  I  like  his  spirit.  But " 

He  turned  to  Harre*  with  a  faint  smile : 

"  My  young  friend  will  have  to  learn  that  the 
human  body  looks  better  without  blue  paint.  He 
might  also  begin  wearing  a  shirt,  or  something." 

"  My  mother,"  said  Harre",  " —  she  told  me  I 
had  a  reputation  to  keep  up." 

"  A  young  man  can  live  without  a  reputation, 
but  not  without  a  shirt." 


THEY  WENT  265 

The  princess  observed : 

"You  will  never  persuade  him  to  change  his 
clothes." 

"  That  you  won't,"  said  Harre. 

"  Won't  I?  And  now  come.  My  boat  is  wait- 
ing. We  will  go  to  the  place  I  mentioned,  where 
there  are  no  disagreeable  rainbows " 

"  No  rainbows?  " 

"  I  think  not,"  said  Theophilus. 

They  went. 


CHAPTEE  XX 

THE  drnidess  was  stirring  at  daybreak; 
moving  upwards  by  that  garden  path  to 
where,  close  beside  her  favourite  seat, 
she  was  wont  to  perform  certain  eastward-glanc- 
ing rites  in  honour  of  Belen  the  Sun,  fructifier 
of  seeds,  lord  of  light.  Arrived  at  the  spot,  she 
looked  down  as  always  over  the  tree  tops  of  a 
young  plantation  and  rows  of  trim  vegetables  in 
the  direction  of  the  city,  one  corner  of  whose 
mighty  embankment  and  brazen  turrets  could  be 
seen  far  away,  gleaming  across  the  water  and 
overhung,  on  these  summer  mornings,  by  a 
roseate  canopy  of  sea-mist  and  ascending  smoke. 

The  city :  where  was  it  gone? 

Nothing  met  her  eye;  nothing  save  a  watery 
expanse  —  leagues  and  leagues  of  green  ocean, 
weltering  right  up  to  the  foot  of  the  distant  hills. 
Nothing ! 

The  city  was  drowned. 

Manthis  was  not  unprepared  for  what  she  saw. 
None  the  less,  she  staggered  under  the  blow,  and 
a  multitude  of  questions  began  to  assail  her. 
Then,  mindful  of  her  duty,  she  raised  aloft  her 
arms  in  that  customary  intercourse  with  the 

266 


THEY  WENT  267 

Great  Fire.  Straightway  an  immeasurable  calm 
fell  upon  her.  After  another  glance  at  the  site 
of  the  doomed  town,  she  descended  slowly  to  the 
college  to  begin  the  day's  work. 

The  pupils,  when  she  entered  the  Hall  of  As- 
sembly, observed  that  she  had  donned  her  girdle 
of  pale-blue  callais  stones.  They  nudged  one 
another,  thinking,  as  often  before: 

"  She  is  going  to  make  a  speech,  a  big  one." 

"Not  a  big  one  today,"  said  Manthis,  who 
could  always  guess  their  thoughts  —  nearly 
always.  "  My  heart  is  too  full."  Then,  in  the 
fewest  possible  words,  she  told  of  the  catas- 
trophe; likely  enough,  she  explained,  their  par- 
ents, their  brothers  and  sisters  and  all  the  in- 
habitants of  the  town  had  perished.  As  for 
herself,  the  unseen  powers  would  doubtless 
vouchsafe  to  her  some  enlightenment.  Hence- 
forth, perhaps,  she  must  be  mother  to  them  all. 
It  would  be  a  heavy  charge,  she  added,  and  her 
voice  became  almost  inaudible.  She  was  old,  and 
soon  to  grow  infirm !  Such  was  the  fate  of  man ! 
She  would  implore  counsel  of  the  gods!  A  de- 
cision would  be  taken  in  due  course.  "  Then  the 
big  speech  will  follow,"  she  concluded,  outwardly 
unmoved. 

The  younger  ones,  some  of  them,  appeared  to 
be  unable  to  grasp  the  meaning  of  their  loss. 
Others  began  to  cry. 


268  THEY  WENT 

"  Let  me  see  no  tears  on  your  cheeks,"  said 
Manthis.  "  Woman  bends ;  she  never  breaks. 
Now  think  awhile,  children,  of  what  I  have  told 
you  and  ask,  on  this  exceptional  and  distressing 
occasion,  any  questions  you  please." 

There  was  no  movement  among  them  at  first. 
Then  two  or  three  of  the  girls  were  seen  to  hold 
a  consultation.  Presently  one  of  them  enquired : 

"  If  all  the  men  are  drowned,  and  even  the 
young  ones,  and  even  the  tiny  little  boys,  how 
shall  we  ever " 

She  seemed  to  hesitate. 

"  Hold  your  head  up,  child,  and  try  to  speak 
distinctly.  What  do  you  mean?  " 

"  I  mean,  when  the  time  comes  to  leave  the 
Sacred  Rock,  and  enter  upon  the  duties  of  life, 
how  shall  we " 

"  Belen  will  provide,"  said  Manthis  gravely. 
"  And  now  lessons  will  take  place  as  usual.  Our 
morning  must  not  be  wasted.  After  dinner  we 
purpose  to  row  across  and  view  the  mischief.  Or 
perhaps  sail,"  she  added,  "  since  the  breeze  is 
freshening.  Meanwhile,  disperse !  " 

They  dispersed.  When  her  own  class  was  as- 
sembled, she  said : 

"  Our  task  today  includes  dancing  and  meta- 
physics and  a  little  Ogham.  First  of  all,  we  will 
rehearse  what  you  learnt  yesterday  concerning 


THEY  WENT  269 

the  virtues  of  selago  and  samole.  Selago!  It 
must  be  plucked  —  how?  " 

"  Without  the  use  of  iron/'  replied  one  of  the 
pupils.  "And  the  right  hand  must  be  passed 
through  the  left  sleeve  of  the  tunic,  as  though 
the  gatherer  were  committing  a  theft.  And  the 
clothing  must  be  white.  And  the  feet  bare  and 
washed  clean.  And  a  sacrifice  of  bread  and  wine 
shall  first  be  made.  Furthermore,  it  may  not  be 
carried  otherwise  than  in  a  new  napkin." 

Manthis  nodded  approval. 

"  And  samole :  how  gathered?  " 

"Fasting,"  said  another  one.  "And  with  the 
left  hand.  And  whoso  plucks  it  shall  not  look 
behind  her  or  him.  Furthermore,  it  may  not  be 
laid  elsewhere  save  in  the  troughs  from  which  the 
cattle  drink." 

The  druidess  enquired : 

"  You  have  understood  the  significance  of 
these  injunctions?  " 

"  Oh,  yes." 

"All  of  you?" 

"Yes,  yes!" 

"  Why  then,"  she  pursued,  " —  why  pluck 
samole  with  the  left  hand?  " 

There  was  silence.     Nobody  knew  the  reason. 

"What  says  the  babchick?" 

"  Because " 


270  THEY  WENT 

Even  the  babchick  had  forgotten. 

Manthis  again  set  forth  why  the  right  hand 
was  unfitted  for  so  solemn  a  duty,  to  the  com- 
plete satisfaction  of  her  pupils. 

Not  to  her  own. 

Later  on,  when  lessons  were  over,  she  moved 
aloft  once  more,  in  order  to  commune  with  her 
thoughts.  To  the  babchick,  who  was  preparing 
to  follow,  she  said : 

"  Now  run  away,  child.  Play  with  the  others 
and  bid  them  be  cheerful.  Help  them  to  under- 
stand. Say :  we  shall  know  the  truth  this  after- 
noon." 

The  child  obeyed,  wistful  and  somewhat  dis- 
appointed. She  had  a  thousand  questions  to  ask. 
Manthis  foresaw  those  questions;  she  could  not 
be  troubled  with  them  at  that  moment. 

Having  reached  the  seat,  Manthis  loosened  her 
girdle,  disburdening  herself  of  authority.  There 
she  reposed,  hands  folded  on  lap,  no  longer 
teacher  or  priestess  but  only  an  ancient  dame 
striving  to  see  aright.  Often,  on  similar  occa- 
sions, she  had  yearned  for  the  company  of  some 
friend.  She  was  glad,  now,  to  be  alone  —  to  col- 
lect herself  and  recover,  if  possible,  from  the 
blow.  It  had  been  too  sudden.  Enlightenment 
would  come,  she  knew ;  serenity  and  perhaps  even 
joy  —  yes,  there  was  some  small  ray  of  pleasure, 
she  felt,  in  store  for  her;  what  could  it  be? 


THEY  WENT  271 

Meanwhile,  all  kinds  of  scattered  ideas  flitted 
through  her  brain,  which  refused  to  bend  itself 
to  the  purpose  in  hand.  She  was  wearier  than 
usual;  opprssed,  and  almost  dazed.  "If  I  were 
younger,"  she  mused,  "I  might  confront  this 
calamity  with  greater  boldness." 

She  looked  around.  .  .  .  All  the  familiar 
things,  the  gay  flowers,  the  rows  of  beehives  .  .  . 
overhead,  above  that  cirque  of  grey  rocks,  a  sun- 
shiny meadow  where  the  cows  were  pasturing. 
She  could  see  their  friendly  forms  outlined 
against  the  blue  sky  of  midday. 

She  gave  a  long  look  seaward.  It  was  true 
then ;  no  dream. 

And  her  eye,  roving  towards  the  foreground, 
fell  upon  a  bare  patch  among  the  vegetables  at 
her  feet.  It  was  where  the  radishes  had  been; 
those  with  many  leaves  and  small  root.  She  re-s 
membered  the  visit  of  Kenwyn,  that  love-dis- 
tracted Christian  —  his  wild  appealing  look  and 
foolish  speech;  she  called  to  mind  that  other 
Christian,  that  violent  venerable  of  long  ago. 
Much  might  have  been  learnt  from  either  of 
them,  had  they  been  reasonable.  Both  sacrificed 
—  a  singular  fatality  —  in  a  conflict  with  the 
female  sex.  The  first  one  clashed  with  her  own 
moral  notions;  the  other,  with  the  artistic  ones 
of  Heussa,  Queen  of  Terrors.  It  showed,  at 
least,  what  women  could  do,  when  they  wanted. 


272  THEY  WENT 

Women  need  only  want.  How  teach  them  to 
want?  Selago?  You  will  never  teach  women  to 
want,  with  selago. 

Then,  still  nearer  at  hand,  she  caught  sight 
of  the  hem  of  her  white  robe.  Often  had  it 
vexed  her;  strange,  none  the  less,  that  such 
trivial  matters  should  intrude  themselves  at  a 
moment  like  this.  Too  much  gold,  she  thought ; 
I  would  have  it  simpler.  Alas,  the  breadth  of 
the  embroidery  was  fixed  by  tradition,  iron  rules. 
"  I  might  as  well  ask  for  that  wondrous  moon  of 
last  night !  Everything  prescribed !  I  may  not 
wear  nor  eat  what  I, please;  I  may  neither  say 
nor  do  what  I  think  truly  becoming."  Whether 
priests  and  teachers  of  future  ages  would  be  sim- 
ilarly hampered?  Would  they  stumble  forwards 
like  herself,  in  shackles,  and  alone?  If  so,  might 
one  well  despair  of  mankind.  Uphill  work, 
under  such  conditions,  trying  to  make  girls  not 
useful  but  indispensable;  trying  to  fit  them  for 
their  task  in  life  —  the  capture  and  exploitation 
of  the  male.  Samole:  are  these  the  things  that 
women  ought  to  know?  "  It  must  be  plucked 
fasting,  and  with  the  left  hand."  Why  with  the 
left  hand?  Miserable,  worthless  herbs  —  why 
pluck  them  at  all?  Why  teach  such  rules?  Tra- 
dition !  And  yet  —  and  yet  .  .  .  you  will  never 
catch  your  male  with  samole,  pluck  it  as  you 
please, 


THEY  WENT  273 

All  the  while  the  honey-gathering  insects 
flashed  around  her  like  specks  of  burnished 
bronze,  on  their  myriad  voyages  from  rosemary 
bush  to  hive,  and  back  again.  How  full  of 
happy,  wholesome  purpose!  Would  mankind 
ever  arrive  at  their  perfection? 

And  now  a  sound  reached  her  ears,  an  oft- 
heard  clangour  from  that  lustily-smitten  Ori- 
ental thing  —  the  call  to  the  midday  meal. 
Manthis  clasped  her  girdle  and  prepared  to  de- 
scend. At  that  moment,  suddenly,  came  the 
small  ray  of  pleasure.  The  sinful  city  was  gone ; 
no  great  loss,  she  opined;  perhaps  even  a  bless- 
ing. Manifestly  a  blessing!  For  it  dawned 
upon  her  that  she  would  now  be  free  from  many 
kinds  of  annoyances,  free  to  develop  her  own 
ideas  of  betterment,  free  to  introduce  or  abolish 
as  she  saw  fit.  Farewell  to  selago  .  .  .  more 
reading  and  writing  .  .  .  happy  social  life.  .  .  . 
The  ray  had  grown  brighter;  so  bright  that  its 
effulgence  almost  dazzled  her.  She  felt  like 
some  sagacious  gardener  who  holds  in  his  hand 
a  seed  scarce  visible,  and  already  contemplates, 
with  the  mind's  eyes,  the  tall  and  seemly  growth 
which  must  inevitably  spring  therefrom. 

"  My  chance/'  she  thought,  "  has  at  last  ar- 
rived." 

Her  pupils,  when  she  entered  the  dining-hall, 
were  surprised  and  pleased  to  see  a  smile  upon 


274  THEY  WENT 

her  face,  and  the  wiser  of  them  nudged  each 

other,  thinking,  as  often  before : 

"  She  has  made  some  pleasant  discovery." 
"An  unusually  pleasant  one,"  said  Manthis, 

who    could    very    often    read    their    thoughts. 

"  Meanwhile,  let  us  give  thanks  to  Belen  for  what 

we  are  about  to  receive.    Now,  Babchick " 


THE  END 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 
LOAN  DEPT. 


This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


26Mar'58RH 


APR  161953 


General  Library 
University  of  Califorr 
Berkeley 


LD  21A-50m-8.'57 
(08481s!  ftWfly- 


YB 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  UBRARY 


